Harvard Art Museums > 1995.42: Untitled #4 Paintings Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Untitled #4 (Agnes Martin) , 1995.42,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Apr 25, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/226483. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Gallery Text Martin began studying art in New York in the 1940s, and had her first exhibition in 1958 at the Betty Parsons Gallery, where abstract expressionists Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman also showed their work. In the 1960s she began creating paintings in which she combined delicate, transparent washes of color with lightly drawn pencil grids. Untitled #4, though done later in her career, demonstrates these techniques. Martin’s work became important for minimalism. The tedious labor of hand-drawing the grid and the repeated lines evokes minimalism’s penchant for mechanistic execution and serial structures. Yet the slightly wavering pencil marks, created by dragging a pencil across the bumpy woven canvas, are evidence of the hand’s inability to produce in the manner of a machine. In this way, Martin’s paintings examine the tension between manual and machine labor, a subject that occupied artists during the 1960s and beyond. Identification and Creation Object Number 1995.42 People Agnes Martin, American (Maklin, Saskatchewan, Canada 1912 - 2004 Taos, NM) Title Untitled #4 Other Titles Alternate Title: Untitled IV Classification Paintings Work Type painting Date 1991 Places Creation Place: North America, United States Culture American Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/226483 Physical Descriptions Medium Acrylic and graphite on canvas Dimensions 183.5 x 183.5 cm (72 1/4 x 72 1/4 in.) framed: 185.4 x 185.4 x 6 cm (73 x 73 x 2 3/8 in.) Inscriptions and Marks Signed: on back: A. Martin 1991 Provenance Recorded Ownership History American Art Foundation, New York New York (through PaceWildenstein Gallery, New York), gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 1995. Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of The American Art Foundation Copyright © Estate of Agnes Martin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Accession Year 1995 Object Number 1995.42 Division Modern and Contemporary Art Contact am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Publication History James Cuno, ed., A Decade of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions by the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, Mass., Spring 2000), p. 93, ill. (b/w) Exhibition History Agnes Martin, Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris, 05/16/1992 - 06/20/1992 Contemporary Art from the Harvard University Art Museums Collections, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/23/2007 - 01/31/2008 Re-View: European and American Art Since 1900, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/03/2011 - 06/01/2013 32Q: 1100 60’s Experiment, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 04/07/2017 Verification Level This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
