- published: 05 Jun 2015
- views: 26918
Agnes Bernice Martin (March 22, 1912 – December 16, 2004) was a Canadian-born American abstract painter, often referred to as a minimalist; Martin considered herself an abstract expressionist. She won a National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1998.
Agnes Bernice Martin was born in Macklin, Saskatchewan, grew up in Vancouver, and moved to the United States in 1931, becoming a citizen in 1950. Martin studied at Western Washington University College of Education, Bellingham, WA, prior to receiving her B.A. (1942) from Teachers College, Columbia University. After hearing lectures by the Zen Buddhist scholar D. T. Suzuki at Columbia, she became interested in Asian thought, not as a religious discipline, but as a code of ethics, a practical how-to for getting through life. A few years following graduation, Martin matriculated at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, where she also taught art courses before returning to Columbia University to earn her M.A. (1952).
Charles Thomas "Chuck" Close (born July 5, 1940) is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale portraits. Though a catastrophic spinal artery collapse in 1988 left him severely paralyzed, he has continued to paint and produce work that remains sought after by museums and collectors.
Close was born in Monroe, Washington. His father died when he was eleven years old. Most of his early works are very large portraits based on photographs (Photorealism or Hyperrealism technique) of family and friends, often other artists. In an interview with Phong Bui in The Brooklyn Rail, Close describes an early encounter with a Jackson Pollock painting at the Seattle Art Museum: "I went to the Seattle Art Museum with my mother for the first time when I was 11. I saw this Jackson Pollock drip painting with aluminum paint, tar, gravel and all that stuff. I was absolutely outraged, disturbed. It was so far removed from what I thought art was. However, within 2 or 3 days, I was dripping paint all over my old paintings. In a way I’ve been chasing that experience ever since."
Actors: Simone Gad (actress), Liz Toonkel (miscellaneous crew), Brian Bress (actor), Mary Leigh Cherry (producer), Philip Martin (producer), Madison East (miscellaneous crew),
Plot: 20th Century reclusive artist and writer, Agnes Martin, takes a metaphysical car ride through the desert. Along the way she meets creatures that might be of her own making and might not. She waxes philosophy, art theory and more with her passengers and her mechanic, who she debates once in a while, when he pops his head up from working on the moving car.
Genres: Animation, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Short,