Kenneth Martin

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kenneth Martin (born April 13, 1905 in Sheffield , Yorkshire , Great Britain , † November 21, 1984 in London , Great Britain) was a British painter and sculptor . He is considered an important representative of Constructivist Art and Kinetic Art in Great Britain. He was one of the leading figures in the revival of constructivism in Britain and America in the 1940s , along with his wife Mary Martin and Victor Pasmore .

life and work

Kenneth Martin first attended the Sheffield School of Art before studying on a scholarship at the Royal College of Art in London from 1929 to 1932 . There he met Mary Balmford (1907–1969), whom he married in 1930 and who, as Mary Martin, also became a world-famous artist.

In the 1930s, Martin painted in a naturalistic style and came into contact with the Euston Road School, which included William Coldstream , Victor Pasmore, Claude Rogers , Maurice Field and Graham Bell , among others . Above all, the acquaintance with Victor Pasmore should shape his art.

Martin gradually began to paint more abstractly in the 1940s . From 1951 he created his first metal constructions and kinetic sculptures as mobile wire sculptures based on mathematical logic . From 1946 to 1967 he was visiting professor at the Goldsmith College of Art in London.

Martin was also particularly interested in geometric abstraction . He worked closely with the representatives of constructivism in England in the 1950s, such as Victor Pasmore, Adrian Heath , John Ernest , Anthony Hill , Stephen Gilbert and Gillian Wise .

Kenneth and Mary Martin participated with Pasmore in a number of group exhibitions in the 1950s. Kenneth and Mary had their first solo exhibition together at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London in 1960. In the 1960s, Kenneth Martin taught a course at the Barry Summer School and recruited his ex-student Peter Lowe as his assistant.

Kenneth Martin was a participant in the 4th San Marino Biennale in 1963, the 8th Tokyo Biennale in 1965 and in 1968 with 12 kinetic metal objects and sculptures in the 4th documenta in Kassel .

From 1969, after the death of his wife, he created his chance and order work . These were sequences and series of drawings , images and prints that dealt with the combination of chance ( chance ) and system ( order ). With these works he was also represented at documenta 6 in 1977.

Literature and Sources

  • IV. Documenta. International exhibition. Exhibition catalog. Volume 1 Painting and Sculpture, Volume 2 Graphics / Objects. Kassel 1968.
  • Harald Kimpel and Karin Stengel: documenta IV 1968 international exhibition - A photographic reconstruction (series of publications from the documenta archive). Bremen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86108-524-9 .
  • documenta 6. kassel 1977. Exhibition catalog. Volume 1 painting, sculpture / environment, performance, volume 2 photography, film, video, volume 3 hand drawings, utopian design, books. Kassel 1977, ISBN 3-920453-00-X .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Martin, Kenneth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British painter and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Sheffield , Yorkshire , UK
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 1984
Place of death London