Lot 32
  • 32

Agnes Martin

Estimate
2,500,000 - 3,500,000 USD
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Description

  • Agnes Martin
  • Untitled #3
  • signed and dated 1989 on the reverse
  • acrylic and graphite on canvas
  • 72 by 72 in. 182.9 by 182.9 cm.

Provenance

The Pace Gallery, New York
Private Collection
Acquired by the present owner from the above in March 1990

Literature

Tiffany Bell, Ed., Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné: Paintings, New York, 2017 - Ongoing, no. 1989.003, illustrated in color

Condition

This work is in excellent condition. Please contact the Contemporary Art Department at +1 (212) 606-7254 for the report prepared by Terrence Mahon. The canvas is framed in a metal frame.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

 A profoundly peaceful work of art, Agnes Martin’s Untitled #3 from 1989 magnificently captures the sublime expressiveness within minimal means that is a hallmark of the artist’s oeuvre and which stands as her most influential contribution to the Twentieth Century discourse on the value of painting. Martin’s art reflects a prolonged and deeply considered investigation into the nature of abstraction and the role of the artist, masterfully articulating an intellectual balancing act between the subtle poetry of delicate mark-making and the muscular prose of modernist geometry. Consistently working within the stability of the square, Martin used the cool mathematical logic of the line to pare down her compositions to the simplest language; the continuous horizontal lines suggest an idealized landscape, but in her best work, the rigid formal order is softened by the humanity of the artist’s touch. In the present painting, her softened hues and subtly irregular lines produce a palpable sensuality, while her tempered geometric vocabulary and measured brushstrokes maintain a graceful coolness. Untitled #3 is a superb example of Martin’s prodigious body of work: a brilliantly balanced symphony composed of the essential themes that characterize her inimitable technique. Although Martin’s work aligns visually with an abstract sensibility in its denial of representational or figurative subject matter, her paintings also reject the exaltation of the male gesture, a defining tendency of many of the Abstract Expressionist artists with whom she is often compared. In response to their fevered action painting, Martin embraced a more meditative approach, which led to her adoption of the square and the grid. Her use of this classically Minimalist structure, however, did not signify an alignment with the tenets of that movement, which sought to erase the personal aspect of art and remove all traces of the artist’s hand. Instead, Martin underlined her artistry with a graphite signature, as the subtle inconsistencies and occasional hesitancy of her lines reassert her real and very human presence in the work. These lines are laid down on muted grounds of neutral hues or softened washes of pigment that mark a further contrast to the dramatic palettes of the Abstract Expressionists and bold primary colors of Minimalism. As beautifully embodied in Untitled #3, Martin’s exceptional works resonate with a quiet stillness that is at once deeply personal and sublimely transcendent.

Arguably the most rewarding element of this canvas is Martin’s emblematic pencil marks. When viewed from a distance, the repeated horizontal lines appear straight and ordinary, virtually disappearing into the hushed tonality of the expanse. Upon closer inspection, however, each ruling is entirely unique, characterized by slight irregularities where Martin picked up her pencil, paused, and then resumed, or where the textured surface of the paint discreetly diverts the path of her hand. Without any other distractions, the eye follows the gossamer thin strands as they traverse the monochrome canvas from left to right. Beginning and ending at uneven distances from the edge of the canvas, the thinnest marks appear to float on top of the textured surface, vibrating with a quiet energy that is balanced by the thicker bands, which wrap around the edges like a kind of anchor. Such remarkable dynamism is heightened by the monumental scale of this picture. Martin considered her canvas, six-by-six-foot, “a size you can walk into.” (A. Martin quoted in Benita Eisler, “Profile: Life Lines,” The New Yorker, January 25, 1993, p. 81) Facing this work, the viewer is enveloped in its meditative hum, and absorbs the calm serenity that is such a celebrated feature of Martin’s praxis.

As essential in creating this contemplative experience is the soft, subdued tonality of the work. One of her transitional “grey paintings” of the late 1980s, Untitled #3 represents a significant shift in Martin’s oeuvre. Instead of the translucent washes of color seen in her earlier compositions, these paintings were executed in a palette of muted grey, with layers of paint creating matte, opaque surfaces that serve as a bridge between her early and later works. Marking a departure from her earlier technique of gradually applying sheer washes to develop a pale haze of color, in the works from 1988 and 1989 Martin engaged a palette knife to build a thicker surface of undiluted pigment, muffling the weave of the canvas in a blanket of rich white and greyscale tones. Far from smothering the work’s energy, however, the added tactility of the surface creates a depth and vitality that unmistakably presages the spiritual power of Martin’s later canvases. Untitled #3 thus evinces the artist’s formidable intelligence, keen focus, and masterful skill at balancing numerous dichotomies. Even as it paradoxically suggests a reduction to the barest artistic bones of graphite overlaid on pigment, the resulting luminous masterpiece is breathtaking in its sophisticated brilliance.