The Wall

In the 1960s, Agnes Martin experimented with the size of her canvases, materials, and techniques to explore the creative potential of the grid format. Her bare aesthetic differed from her minimalist contemporaries, who usually left few traces of their work in their pieces. The lines drawn in The Wall (1962) waver slightly, in testimony to the passage of the artist’s hand. 

This piece features a dotted pattern and rectangular forms painted in oil and ink on a canvas mounted on a wood board. The dots are minuscule nail heads that the artist hammered into the wood through the canvas. The regular rhythm of the patterns in The Wall expresses a meditative sensibility. 

Martin was influenced by the Taoist and Zen Buddhist thought that had become popular in the United States in the 1950s and 60s. Inspired by these belief systems, she strove to create images that evoke what we feel when we free our spirits from the distractions of the physical world. Because of their visibly manual imprint, their all-over format, and their spiritual tone, Martin considered her work to be closely connected to Abstract Expressionism. 

The Pinault Collection showed this work for the first at the Icones exhibition at Punta della Dogana in Venice in 2023