Knox Martin

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Knox Martin

Born February 12, 1923(1923-02-12)
Flag of Colombia Barranquilla, Colombia
Nationality Flag of the United States American
Field Painter, Muralist, Sculptor
Training Art Students League of New York
Movement Abstract expressionism, New York School
Works Venus (mural) (1970), Woman with Bicycle (1979)
Awards NEA Grant, Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant

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]

Contents

[edit] Work

His work is included in the collections of Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden[2], Brooklyn Museum of Art, National Academy of Design, New York University, National Arts Club, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, New York State Museum, Montclair Art Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Baltimore Museum of Art, Berkeley Art Museum[3], Corcoran Gallery of Art, Denver Art Museum, Ithaca Museum, Lowe Art Museum, Wellesley College, Portland Art Museum, Springfield Art Museum, Weatherspoon Art Museum[4], Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art[5], Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Israel Museum and the Bibliotheque Nationale.

One of his murals in New York City is the ten story Venus (mural). [6] It is located on the south side of Bayview Correctional Facility at 19th Street and the West Side Highway. [7]

"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." [8]

In 2002 Knox Martin was named to the National Academy of Design. [9]

[edit] Style

The artist 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 Pop colors, his works have often been executed on a grand scale, as in the outdoor mural, Woman with bicycle, at West Houston and MacDougal Streets in Manhattan.[10] He mostly creates painting, mural painting and sculpture using media such as acrylic, collage, fresco, ink drawing (Pen and Ink), Mixed-Media/Multi-Media and oil.[11]

Venus Mural
Venus Mural


[edit] Teaching

He gives Master Classes at the Art Students League of New York.[12]
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.[13]

Woman with bicycle
Woman with bicycle


[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Knox Martin - About The Artist
  2. ^ Collection Search Results
  3. ^ BAM/PFA - Art Collection
  4. ^ Weatherspoon Art Museum - UNC Greensboro
  5. ^ SAMA - Press Releases
  6. ^ After a 37-Year Run, a Roadside Venus to Be Veiled - New York Times
  7. ^ Knox Martin and his Roadside Venus
  8. ^ Marilyn Kushner, Knox Martin: Early Work, exh. cat. (New York: Janos Gat Gallery, 1997)
  9. ^ National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts
  10. ^ Art; Knox Martin: Angry But More Human - New York Times
  11. ^ http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/search/ArtistKeywords.aspx?artist=32742
  12. ^ Knox Martin - About The Artist
  13. ^ http://www.askart.com/AskART/M/knox_martin/knox_martin.aspx

[edit] Books


[edit] External links

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