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Knox Martin

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Knox Martin
Born (1923-02-12) February 12, 1923 (age 101)
NationalityAmerican
EducationArt Students League of New York
Known forPainter, Muralist, Sculptor
Notable workVenus (mural) (1970), Woman with bicycle (1979)
MovementAbstract expressionism, New York School
AwardsNEA Grant, Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants, Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant, Mary & Maxwell Desser Memorial Award (National Academy of Design), J. Sanford Saltus Medal for Painting (National Academy of Design), Kept Memorial Prize (National Academy of Design), Desser Award for Painting (National Academy of Design), C.A.P.S. Grant, Longview Fellowships

Knox Martin is an American painter, sculptor and muralist.

Born in 1923 in Barranquilla, Colombia, he studied at the Art Students League of New York from 1946 till 1950. He is one of the leading members of New York School - a group of artists and writers. He lives and works in New York City.

"Art is at its cutting edge out of a specific lineage - the creation of reality. The subject matter of what I do, is creation." - Knox Martin (1999).[1]

Early life

William Knox Martin (1891–1927), aviator father of Knox Martin

Knox Martin is the oldest son of Lieut. William Knox Martin, a Virginia-born early aviation pioneer and flyer, and his wife Isabel Vieco, who were married in the Canal Zone in Panama in 1921. Knox Martin Sr., painter, poet, early test pilot, was the first man to fly over the Andes mountains.[2] Six years after his marriage Martin Sr. was fatally injured in an automobile accident in Watertown, New York.[3]
His widow Isabel relocated with her three young sons from Salem, Virginia to New York City.[4]

Early career

After serving in World War II, Knox Martin attended the Art Students League of New York on the G.I. Bill from 1946-1950. His friend Franz Kline placed a painting of his in the 1954 Annual at the Stable Gallery.[5] Charles Egan of the Charles Egan Gallery saw Martin's painting at the Stable Gallery and asked Martin to show his work in a one-man show for the tenth anniversary of the Egan Gallery.[6]

Work

Knox Martin is best known for his repertory of signs and symbols that allude to nature and, in particular, to the female form. Flatly and freely painted in brilliant colors, his works have often been executed on a grand scale, as in the outdoor wall painting, Woman with bicycle, at West Houston and MacDougal Streets in Manhattan.[7] He mostly creates painting, sculpture and wall paintings using media such as acrylic, collage, fresco, ink drawing (Pen and Ink), Mixed-Media/Multi-Media and oil.[8]

Venus Mural

One of his wall paintings in New York City is the twelve-story mural Venus.[9] Painted in 1970, Venus is located on the south side of Bayview Correctional Facility at 19th Street and the West Side Highway.[10]

"Traditionally the goddess of love and fertility, Venus represents woman, erotic and supple, but it also conveys Knox Martin's love affair with New York. Venus is his love poem to the city where he has always lived, a place that is part of his being. The feminine, curvilinear shapes of the image are in direct contrast with the straight forms that intersect the composition. The overwhelming size of this enormous mural only intensifies the experience of female shapes, the linear aspects of the painted composition, and of the surrounding architecture. In an era when art was reaching out to the masses with pop culture, this huge mural was Knox Martin's way of touching a public that would never venture into an art gallery." [11]

Woman with bicycle

Collections

Knox Martin's work is included in the collections of Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art,[12] Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,[13] Art Students League of New York, Brooklyn Museum of Art, National Academy of Design,[14] National Arts Club, New York University, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, New York State Museum, Montclair Art Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Baltimore Museum of Art, Berkeley Art Museum,[15] Boca Raton Museum of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Denver Art Museum, Heckscher Museum of Art, Hofstra University Museum, Indianapolis Museum of Art,[16] Ithaca Museum, Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Lowe Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Arts,[17] Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Portland Art Museum, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art,[18] Springfield Art Museum, Toledo Museum of Art, Weatherspoon Art Museum,[19] Wellesley College, William Benton Museum of Art, Israel Museum, Ludwig Museum in Budapest, and the Bibliothèque Nationale.

In 2002 Knox Martin was named to the National Academy of Design.[20]

Knox Martin is represented by Woodward Gallery in New York City. In the fall of 2010 (September 15-November 13) he had a one man show of his Black and White Paintings.[21][22]

Teaching

Knox Martin gives Master Classes at the Art Students League of New York.[1] He taught at Yale Graduate School of Art, first as visiting critic in art, and then as Professor of Art. He also taught at New York University, the University of Minnesota, and the International School of Art in Umbria, Italy.[23]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Knox Martin - About The Artist
  2. ^ Knox Martin - About The Artist
  3. ^ William Knox Martin- earlyaviators.com
  4. ^ Knox Martin
  5. ^ New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists,
  6. ^ "About Art and Artists; Knox Martin Impresses in First One-Man Show". The New York Times. September 16, 1954. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  7. ^ Raynor, Vivien (June 30, 1981). "Art; Knox Martin: Angry But More Human". The New York Times.
  8. ^ Knox Martin - Artist, Art - Knox Martin
  9. ^ Mindlin, Alex (February 11, 2007). "After a 37-Year Run, a Roadside Venus to Be Veiled". The New York Times.
  10. ^ Knox Martin and his Roadside Venus
  11. ^ Marilyn Kushner, Knox Martin: Early Work, exh. cat. (New York: Janos Gat Gallery, 1997)
  12. ^ Museum of Modern Art Collection
  13. ^ Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
  14. ^ National Academy of Design Collection
  15. ^ BAM/PFA - Art Collection
  16. ^ Indianapolis Museum of Art Collection
  17. ^ Minneapolis Institute of Art Collection
  18. ^ SAMA - Press Releases
  19. ^ Weatherspoon Art Museum Collection
  20. ^ National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts
  21. ^ Knox Martin- Woman: Black and White Paintings
  22. ^ Knox Martin at Woodward Gallery, Best in Show by Robert Shuster, Village Voice, October 20, 2010
  23. ^ Knox Martin - Artist, Art - Knox Martin

Books

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