From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eugene J. Martin
Martin, self-portrait, 1990
Born	July 24, 1938(1938-07-24) Washington, D.C.,
Died	January 1, 2005 (aged 66) Lafayette, Louisiana
Nationality	American
Field	Visual art

Eugene James Martin (b. Washington, D.C., July 24, 1938 - d. Lafayette, Louisiana, January 1, 2005) was a prolific African American visual artist.

Art

Eugene J. Martin's art is best known for his imaginative, complex mixed media collages on paper, his often gently humorous pencil and pen and ink drawings, and his paintings on paper and canvas that may incorporate whimsical allusions to animal, machine and structural imagery among areas of "pure", constructed, biomorphic, or disciplined lyrical abstraction.

Life

E. J. Martin, Midnight Golfer, 1990

E. J. Martin, Untitled, 1985

Eugene James Martin was born on Capitol Hill. His parents were Margaret Helen Dove and James Walter Martin, an itinerant Jazz musician. After his mother died in 1942 giving birth to Jerry Martin, the two brothers were placed in foster care in Washington DC. As a child, Eugene ran away on several occasions, was placed in reform school at six years of age, and eventually spent the remainder of his childhood on a farm in Clarksburg, Maryland where his foster parents were Franie and Madessa Snowdon. On the farm he drew realistic portraits and nature scenes, and also played upright bass, thunder bass, and slide trombone in the local rhythm & blues band The Nu-tones. After attending Clarksburg Elementary, and Lincoln High and Carver High in Rockville, Maryland, Martin pondered whether to become a full-time musician or visual artist. He briefly attended the Navy for the opportunity to receive an art education, but instead was honorably discharged.

E. J. Martin, Janus, 1995

After attending the Corcoran School of Art from 1960-1963, Eugene James Martin became a professional fine arts painter, considering artistic integrity his only guide. He did not adhere to any particular school or art movement, remaining an individualist throughout his life. His art defies categorization.

While spending most of his life in Washington DC, Martin briefly lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, from 1990-1994, returned to Washington DC, and in 1996 moved to Lafayette, Louisiana with his wife, Suzanne Fredericq, a biologist, whom he married in 1988. In December 2001 he suffered simultaneously a brain hemorrhage and stroke while in Belgium. After undergoing physical therapy in Lafayette, he resumed painting and continued creating art until his death.

Gallery

I Am Not a Mockingbird, 1978

Dancing Stringbean, 1987

Joyful Abstraction, 1991

Untitled, 2003

Collections

E.J. Martin, Paranoia Stroll, 2003

E.J. Martin, Avoiding Rush Hour, 1982

Eugene Martin's works of art can be found in numerous private art collections throughout the world, and are included in the permanent collection of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans; the Alexandria Museum of Art, Louisiana; the Stowitts Museum & Library in Pacific Grove, California; the Munich Museum of Modern Art; the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York; the Mobile Museum of Art, Alabama; the Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art in Savannah, Georgia, the Paul R. Jones Collection of African American Art at the University of Delaware, the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and the Louisiana State University Museum of Art in the Shaw Center for the Arts in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

References

• Artnet's Artist Works Catalogues

External links

African American portal

Eugene J. Martin, 2000

Eugene J. Martin, A Nutcracker, 2000

• Eugene Martin's web site
• Additional images and biography of E.J. Martin
• Eugene James Martin in Le Petit Futé travel guide p. 85
• Saatchi video archive: Karl Hasenstein films the studio of Eugene James Martin, Part I
• Videoclips highlighting the art of Eugene Martin
• Eugene James Martin interviews on Flasher
• Interview on Eugene James Martin by qi peng
• Eugene James Martin collection in ARTstor

From Wikiquote

Eugene J. Martin (24 July 1938 – 1 January 2005) was an African American visual artist. While his art was "beyond category", he is particularly noted for his complex, often whimsical and biomorphic mixed media collages on paper; pencil, pen and ink drawings; and "pure", lyrical and constructed abstractions on canvas.

Sourced

• If you seek just a little truth, as most, you should not ignore abstract forms, the basis from which all short-lived experiences we call reality springs.

• • Direct Art Magazine, "In Memoriam - Eugene James Martin", Fall-Winter 2006, Vol. 13, p. 87; also [1] and [2]

• While traveling our separated roads through life, we are also either road signs or potholes on the roads of others.
  • Cellar Door, Spring 1985, Vol. 12(2), p. 50.

• The bird of truth would not be able to fly if it weren't for the air of lies we breathe.
  • from E.J. Martin's website at [3]

• Can someone eat the fruit that comes from the tree of action that grows from the seeds of your mind?
  • from E.J. Martin's website at [4] and [5]

• There are opposing forces in all living things. My work reflects this and stirs up a contrast of emotions in the viewer... perception versus annoyance. To the viewer who has reached that level of awareness, my work is no longer abstract, but very real.
  • Direct Art Magazine, "In Memoriam - Eugene James Martin", Fall-Winter 2006,Vol. 13, p. 86, [6] and [7]

Quotes about Eugene J. Martin

• Lorsque l'art d'écrire obsède mon esprit et ronge insidieusement mes forces, je laisse errer mon regard sur un dessein d"Eugene Martin, je me repaîs de ses couleurs sereines et puise des certitudes dans ses lumières si denses.
  • Françoise Mallet-Joris, foreword in catalogue booklet of Eugene Martin's 1990 one-person exhibit at the Michel Rooryck Gallery, Ghent, Belgium

Botox wait (2002)

• As have the Chinese and English Languages, Eugene has stripped his grammer to the naked bone, sinewed the simple frame, and created a rich vocabulary of meaning, sight and emotion. Yet, always there is discipline.
  • Thomas Stark, from E.J. Martin's website at [8], and [9]

• One element that seems to run throughout Martin's forty years of work is the physical and psychological mechanics of the body/mind. Whether spirited in animals or manifested through abstraction, they are about ourselves: our neurosis, the dreams we hope for, how we eat... Ultimately though, they reveal our resistance to escape the gravitational pull of stillness - the inevitable conclusion to life.
  • Brian Guidry, in pamphlet introducing Eugene James Martin's "Ornithology" exhibit, Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette LA, 1.25.2005 - 4.10.2005

External links

Wikipedia has an article about:

Eugene J. Martin

• Artnet Artist Works Catalogues - Eugene James Martin
• Eugene Martin's web site
• Video clips on the art of Eugene J. Martin