Lines for Agnes: 9 Contemporary Painters

‘Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings’ Agnes Martin

Line, colour, plane, surface, space, ground and paint remain the elements available to abstract painters in the 21st century. In this show 9 contemporary painters explore current processes and concerns in abstract painting whilst acknowledging an invisible yet tangible line to the painter Agnes Martin, who died in 2004. Some use metaphysical aspects of painting to make visual continuing ideas connected with beauty, nothingness, solitude & temporality, whereas others adopt different methodologies or purely material processes. This exhibition brings together a variety of approaches within the formal constraints of abstraction, opening up a dialogue not only with Martin’s work but also between each other’s work within the space of the Crypt St Marylebone and the frame of the viewer.

This exhibition was planned in 2014 before knowing anything of the current Agnes Martin retrospective at Tate Modern. It is therefore an unexpected pleasure to have the paintings here on show at the same time as that exhibition so that individual connections can be explored.

Ruth Philo August 2015