On Agnes Martin
Her agent brought his granddaughter up to her NYC place one day, the girl was like 8 or 9. She asked her what she painted. Agnes had a rose in a small vase on her kitchen table & asked the girl “do you think this rose is beautiful?” & the girl said yes. Then Agnes put the rose in a cupboard & asked the girl “is the rose still beautiful?” & the girl said yes, & Agnes said “that’s what I paint”.
Maybe that’s a load of hooey. But I love it.
Via my buddy Mark, the one who drew that picture of me. Here’s the internet version of the story. First time I saw her work was at the Des Moines Art Center and I remember falling in Love and immediately, just squinting and staring and standing there. My head and heart went calm. I am so happy I got to see this sage’s work up close again.
Mark followed up with this: