Agnes Martin Quotes

“My paintings are not about what is seen. They are about what is known forever in the mind.”

— Agnes Martin

Happiness is being on the beam with life - to feel the pull of life.

— Agnes Martin

“I think everyone is born 100 percent ego, and after that it's just adjustment.”

— Agnes Martin

One thing I like about Zen. It doesn't believe in achievement.

— Agnes Martin

“The Minimalists are idealist. They want to minimize themselves in favor of the ideal ... But I just can't. You see, my paintings are not cool.”

— Agnes Martin

“When I think of art I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection.”

— Agnes Martin

“Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings.”

— Agnes Martin

“I'm very careful not to have ideas, because they're inaccurate.”

— Agnes Martin

“The value of art is in the observer.”

— Agnes Martin

“Artwork is a representation of our devotion to life.”

— Agnes Martin

“My paintings are certainly nonobjective. They're just horizontal lines.”

— Agnes Martin

The worst thing you can think about when you're working is yourself.

— Agnes Martin

“When I first made a grid, I happened to be thinking of the innocence of trees, and then a grid came into my mind and I thought it represented innocence, and I still do, and so I painted it and then I was satisfied. I thought, 'This is my vision.'”

— Agnes Martin

“To progress in life you must give up the things you do not like. Give up doing the things that you do not like to do. You must find the things that you do like. The things that are acceptable to your mind.”

— Agnes Martin

“I don't think the way to succeed is by doing something aggressive. Aggression is weak-minded.”

— Agnes Martin

You can't make a perfect painting. We can see perfection in our minds. But we can't make a perfect painting.

— Agnes Martin

“Any material may be used but the theme is the same and the response is the same for all artwork ... we all have the same concern, but the artist must know exactly what the experience is. He must pursue the truth relentlessly.”

— Agnes Martin

“People who look at my painting say that it makes them happy, like the feeling when you wake up in the morning. And happiness is the goal, isn't it?”

— Agnes Martin

“The main thing in making art often is letting go of your expectation and your idea.”

— Agnes Martin

Doing what you were born to do ... That's the way to be happy.

— Agnes Martin

Of all the pitfalls in our paths and the tremendous delays and wanderings off the track, I want to say that they are not what they seem to be. I want to say that all that seems like fantastic mistakes are not mistakes, all that seems like error
is not error; and it all has to be done. That which seems like a false step is the next step.

— Agnes Martin

It's through discipline and tremendous disappointment and failure that you arrive at what it is you must paint.

— Agnes Martin

“I once taught art to adults in a night course. I had a woman who painted her back yard, and she said it was the first time she had ever really looked at it. I think everyone sees beauty. Art is a way to respond”

— Agnes Martin

That which takes us by surprise-moments of happiness-that is inspiration.

— Agnes Martin

“When you look in your mind you find it covered with a lot of rubbishy thoughts. You have to penetrate these and hear what your mind is telling you to do. Such work is original work.”

— Agnes Martin

“The enormous pitfall is devotion to oneself instead of to life. All works that are self-devoted are absolutely ineffective.”

— Agnes Martin

“I want to emphasize the fact that we all have the same experience and the same concern, but the artist must know exactly what the experience is. He must pursue the truth relentlessly. Once he sees this fact his feet are on the path. If you want to know the truth you will know it. The manipulation of materials in an artwork is a result of this state of mind. The artist works by awareness of his own state of mind.”

— Agnes Martin

“There's nobody living who couldn't stand all afternoon in front of a waterfall ... Anyone who can sit on a stone in a field awhile can see my painting. Nature is like parting a curtain, you go into it ... as you would cross an empty beach to look at the ocean.”

— Agnes Martin

“The adventurous state of mind is a high house ... The joy of adventure is unaccountable. This is the attractiveness of artwork. It is adventurous, strenuous and joyful.”

— Agnes Martin

“I often paint tranquility. If you stop thinking and rest, then a little happiness comes into your mind. At perfect rest you are comfortable.”

— Agnes Martin

“I think our minds respond to things beyond this world. Take beauty: it's a very mysterious thing, isn't it? I think it's a response in our minds to perfection. It's too bad, people not realizing that their minds expand beyond this world.”

— Agnes Martin

“Beauty and happiness and life are all the same and they are pervasive, unattached and abstract and they are our only concern. They are immeasurable, completely lacking in substance. They are perfect and sublime. This is the subject matter of art.”

— Agnes Martin

“Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye, it is in the mind.”

— Agnes Martin

“Inspiration is there all the time. For everyone whose mind is not clouded over with thoughts whether they realize it or not.”

— Agnes Martin

“I hope I have made it clear that the work is about perfection as we are aware of it in our minds but that the paintings are very far from being perfect - completely removed in fact - even as we ourselves are.”

— Agnes Martin

“Anything can be painted without representation.”

— Agnes Martin

“Fulfill your potential. That's the way to happiness.”

— Agnes Martin

I used to meditate until I learned to stop thinking.

— Agnes Martin

It is commonly thought that everything that is can be put into words.

— Agnes Martin

“Pollock was terrific. I think he freed himself of all kinds of worry about this world. Ran around and dripped, and then he managed to express ecstasy.”

— Agnes Martin

“What I say is that we're capable of a transcendent response, and I think it makes us happy. And I do think beauty produces a transcendent response.”

— Agnes Martin

“What we really want to do is serve happiness. We want everyone to be happy, never unhappy even for a moment. We want the animals to be happy. The happiness of every living thing is what we want.”

— Agnes Martin

“It's not about facts, it's about feelings. It's about remembering feelings and happiness. A definition of art is that it makes concrete our most subtle emotions. I think the highest form of art is music. It's the most abstract of all art expression.”

— Agnes Martin

“I paint with my back to the world”

— Agnes Martin

“I would like my work to be recognized as being in the classical tradition (Coptic, Egyptian, Greek, Chinese), as representing the Ideal in the mind. Classical art cannot possibly be eclectic. One must see the ideal in one's own mind. It is like a memory - an awareness -of perfection.”

— Agnes Martin

It would be an endless battle if it were all up to ego
because it does not destroy and is not destroyed by itself
It is like a wave
it makes itself up, it rushes forward getting nowhere really
it crashes, withdraws and makes itself up again
pulls itself together with pride
towers with pride
rushes forward into imaginary conquest
crashes in frustration
withdraws with remorse and repentance
pulls itself together with new resolution

— Agnes Martin