The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 28, 2024

The City

The City

1966
(American, 1912–2004)
Framed: 184.5 x 184.5 x 3 cm (72 5/8 x 72 5/8 x 1 3/16 in.); Unframed: 182.9 x 182.9 cm (72 x 72 in.)
© Agnes Martin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Drawing rectangular grids on a square canvas required extensive computation to precisely achieve; Martin spent hours calculating the lines of her grids before putting pencil to canvas.

Description

Agnes Martin developed her signature style in the late 1950s and early 1960s while living in New York City—six-foot-square canvases covered in thinly lined rectangular grids. Martin painstakingly drew her grids by hand, the faintly modulated background enriching the graphite lines with subtle variations of light and pattern. While her work is abstract, she often conjured subjects or themes with her titles. In this case, she may be referencing the urban plan of gridded city streets, or perhaps the rigidity of city life that Martin felt. The City was made a year before Martin abruptly left New York and settled in a remote town in New Mexico, where she would not resume her practice until 1973.
  • Hinson, Tom E. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 105 www.jstor.org
    Arendsee, M., and M. Steinman-Arendsee. "Take the CAN disability aesthetics tour, at the Cleveland Museum of art." CAN Journal (Winter 2019/20): 76-87. Mentioned: p. 87
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art (06/01/2007); "CMA @ Akron"
    Notable Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 15, 1991).
    CMA 1991: "Notable Acquisitions," CMA Bulletin, 78 (June 1991), p. 105, repr.
    The Art of Collecting Modern Art: An Exhibition of Works from the Collections of Clevelanders, Feb. 12 - March 30, 1986.
    New York, Marlborough Gallery, Selected Works from the Collection of Carter Burden, 1974, p. 23.
    New York, Mary Boone Gallery, Agnes Martin, 1959-1969, 1991.
  • {{cite web|title=The City|url=false|author=Agnes Martin|year=1966|access-date=28 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1991.30