AGNES MARTIN (1912-2004)
Monte Rotondo (2, 622m - 8, 602ft)
France (Corse)
1. In Monte Rotondo et la vallée de la Restonica, huile sur toile
2. In Le torrent bleu de Restonica, pastel
The mountain
The Monte Rotondo (2, 622m - 8, 602ft) is the highest point of the second highest Corsican massif, after that of Monte Cinto in the island of Corsica (France). It is located in the center of the island between the microregions of Talcini, Venaco, Rogna in La and Sorro in Su. The summit overlooks Lake Bettaniella (south face), Lake Oriente and Lake Galeria (north face).
The main peak of the Monte Rotondo range are : Monte Rotondo, Maniccia, Monte Cardo, Monte d'Oro, Punta Artica and Punta alle Porte.
It has long been considered as the highest point of the island and was then assigned an altitude of 2,746 meters above sea level. It has been dethroned on the shelves by Monte Cinto only for about a century. In 1802, André François Miot, State Councilor appointed in Corsica by Bonaparte was the first to make the "tourist" climb of the summit. With two other Corsican peaks, Monte Cinto and Monte Stello, the Monte Rotondo served at the geodesic junction between Corsica and mainland France carried out by Paul Helbronner in 1925. The installation of facilities such as the shelter allowed the summit to be occupied for 14 days.
The Painter
Agnes Bernice Martin, born in Canada, was an American abstract painter. Her work has been defined as an "essay in discretion on inward-ness and silence". Although she is often considered or referred to as a minimalist, Martin considered herself an abstract expressionist.Her work is most closely associated with Taos, with some of her early work visibly inspired by the desert environment of New Mexico. She moved to New York City after being discovered by the artist/gallery owner Betty Parsons in 1957.
In addition to a couple of self-portraits and a few watercolor landscapes, Martin's early works included biomorphic paintings in subdued colors made when the artist had a grant to work in Taos between 1955 and 1957. However, she did her best to seek out and destroy paintings from the years when she was taking her first steps into abstraction.
Martin praised Mark Rothko for having "reached zero so that nothing could stand in the way of truth". Following his example Martin also pared down to the most reductive elements to encourage a perception of perfection and to emphasize transcendent reality. Her signature style was defined by an emphasis upon line, grids, and fields of extremely subtle color. Particularly in her breakthrough years of the early 1960s, she created 6 × 6 foot square canvases that were covered in dense, minute and softly delineated graphite grids. Because of her work's added spiritual dimension, which became more and more dominant after 1967, she preferred to be classified as an abstract expressionist.
She was awarded a National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1998.
The Agnes Martin estate is represented by Pace Gallery, New York
Source:
