East River

Born on a wheat farm in Saskatchewan, Agnes Martin moved to the United States when she was nineteen years old. She studied art at Columbia University and, later, at the University of New Mexico, becoming a US citizen in 1950. While in Taos in 1956, Martin met New York gallery owner Betty Parsons, who represented New York School artists Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, and Ad Reinhardt. As a result of the meeting, Martin returned to New York where she lived along the East River on Coenties Slip, in the same building as artists Ellsworth Kelly and Robert Indiana. Martin was fascinated by the views of the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge. Her first two solo New York shows (at the Betty Parsons Gallery in 1958 and 1959) comprised abstract paintings that make direct references in their titles to her engagement with nature.

Martin began making her "grid" paintings in 1960, and East River is a prime example of what would become the artist's signature early style. Its serene, contemplative beauty-executed in gray oil paint on primed canvas with the grid drawn in pencil across the wet paint-belies the rigorous work and discipline behind its creation. Carefully drawn horizontal lines are separated by five vertical lines, which, when combined with the edges of the canvas, create six individual panels. Alternatively, the vertical line bisecting the painting suggests a diptych. Although Martin's work was associated with the Minimalists-she was a friend of Barnett Newman, who installed her shows at the Betty Parsons Gallery, and Ad Reinhardt- she herself preferred to think of her work as more closely aligned with artists of the Abstract Expressionist generation.