Agnes Martin

Agnes Martin, one of the 20th century’s most influential artists, was a recluse. Famous for her luminous abstract expressionist paintings, Martin herself cultivated a hermetic image in interviews and by living alone, often off the grid, in New Mexico, until her death at age 92 in 2004. When she was living in Albuquerque in the 1940s, in Taos in the ‘50s, in Cuba in the ‘70s, and then in Galisteo in the ‘80s, Martin established strong connections with her local communities and was an active player in her local art scenes. As a poor, queer female artist who suffered from schizophrenia, Martin existed on the margins of society for most of her life. After spending the 1950s living in poverty, she achieved critical success in the 1960s and commercial success thereafter. In the 1990s she had made millions off her art and was eager to repay the kindness her community had showed her Martin’s donations to charities catering to disadvantaged youth and victims of violence suggest a kinship with those overlooked and failed by society. In 2002, the Taos community expressed its gratitude to Agnes on the occasion of her 90th birthday, with a two-day celebration of her life.