Few things are more stereotypically male dominated, in the already pretty male dominated world of art, as abstraction. A post-war, post-modern group of painters, working predominantly in New York, and playing out all those male ego fantasies of virtuoso, misunderstood, artistic genius.
Agnes Martin is the exception that proves the rule. And Tate Modern are giving the painter her dues in a new retrospective set to open in June. Known for her minimalistic, meditative take on abstraction, that places her somewhere between Sol LeWitt and Mark Rothko. Her work often took the form of pencilled grids and pastel shades.
Martin famously abandoned New York, the art scene, and painting in 1967, to travel across the US and Canada in search of solitude, before settling in New Mexico, and eventually coming back to painting in the mid-70s.
Credits
Main image Agnes Martin, Untitled #5 1998. _Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen,_ Düsseldorf. © 2015 Agnes Martin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York