Miriam Cabessa

Born in Casablanca, Morocco, 1966
Lives and works in New York

Miriam Cabessa's choice of Agnes Martin may initially appear surprising, yet further consideration reveals its underlying logic and deep meaning. Cabessa's paintings are similarly marked by the coexistence of discipline and freedom, structure and loss of control. Cabessa presents three paintings painted in primary colors that dialogue with the geometric minimalism of the New York School, as well as with the radical pioneering quality of Agnes Martin's work and her unique contribution to one of the boldest developments in 20th-century art.


Agnes Martin

1912, Macklin, Saskatchewa, Canada
2004, Taos, New Mexico

Agnes Martin's paintings appear to be affiliated with geometric minimalism, although Martin herself rejected this association and saw her work as a further development of abstract expressionism. During the 1950s and 1960s, Martin was part of a group of New York-based artists - including Elsworth Kelly, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg - who were viewed as the second generation of the New York School. Her paintings, which are the most ascetic and monastic works created by any member of this generation, are based on pencil-drawn grids overlaid with thin strips of paint, which came to serve as the signature element of her painterly language. Martin's reservations concerning geometric minimalism stemmed from her perception of this movement as cold and impersonal. The grids underlying her own paintings, meanwhile, are always marked by subtle manual gestures, and the resulting impression is often of paint hovering over the canvas.