The Easel

Agnes Martin Finds the Light That Gets Lost

An elegant appreciation of Agnes Martin and her grid paintings. “It’s not hard to imagine her with a brush or a pencil in hand, moving across her rectangular grid with quiet intention—indeed, that’s likely why she identified not with minimalism but with abstract expressionism. [This painting] is blue. Not the blue of the sky … but a rich, lapis-lazuli blue, a marbled blue with a tone of violet in it. This is a material blue, a touchable blue.”