Kenneth Martin

Waddington & Tooth Galleries, London, where acquired by Alex Bernstein Esq.
Jonathan Clark & Co, London, where acquired by the present owner in November 2003

New Haven, Yale Centre for British Art, Kenneth Martin, 18th April - 17th June 1979, cat. no.70, illustrated p.87.

Original canvas. There are stretcher bar marks along the upper and lower edges. There are isolated areas of minor craquelure along the stretcher marks and in isolated places in all four quadrants. The surface has recently been cleaned. Under ultraviolet light there a few isolated fine flecks and fine lines of retouching to areas of craquelure. This work is unframed. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 5381 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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This long and important series of works has its origin in a series of studies which Martin began in 1969. Using a square grid with equal numbers along each axis, the corresponding numbers were written on slips of paper and were then picked at random in pairs, giving the start and finish co-ordinates of each line, chance thus determining the length and orientation of each line. The paintings thus become a combination of chance and the hand of the artist in the execution of that process, the visually pleasing results taking on a third, independent, character. In Chance & Order 22 (Black) this painterly sense is very evident, both in the finished forms, but also where on closer inspection it is possible to see the changes that the artist has introduced in the evolution of the image, these 'ghosts' of previous forms beneath the white surface adding both a textural richness and a sense of considered construction.