The need for voluntary solitude

Born in Canada in 1912 and based in the U.S., Agnes Martin is one of the most famous abstract painters of all time. Her grid paintings of horizontal and vertical lines, which she created in subtle variations over the decades until she died in 2004, are considered masterpieces that capture abstract emotions such as joy, love, and happiness. At a Sotheby's New York auction last year, Agnes Martin's 1961 “Grey Stone II” painting made headlines when it sold for $18.7 million. The Solol Museum in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, is presenting the artist's first solo exhibition in Korea, ‘Agnes Martin: Moments of Perfection,’ through the end of August.

In the documentary film ‘With My Back to the World,’ which is being presented at the Solol Museum, Agnes Martin says, “The best moments of my life were the times I was alone.” The artist would wait for inspiration with a ‘blank’ mind for days or months, and when the perfect image would come to her, she would begin working on it, a process she repeated throughout her life. As I watched the film, which features interviews with the artist and visits to her studio in New Mexico, I wondered if the moments of contemplation and meditation that Martin's work offers might stem from her solitude.

Today, we are not alone even when we are alone. We are constantly connected to others through our cell phones, peeking into their lives and getting information we did not even know we needed. As a result, we become disconnected from the physical, real world and struggle to control the direction and intensity of our attention. It's impossible to experience pure immersion, such as Agnes Martin's Taoist and Zen Buddhist influences, on a daily basis. But we need to put the brakes on our distracted information-gathering and voracious curiosity. This is where appreciating Agnes Martin's work can help. Martin's paintings, which defy materiality, are not fully captured by a cell phone camera.