{"id":3195,"date":"2014-09-09T01:29:44","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T05:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kolajmagazine.com\/content\/?p=3195"},"modified":"2014-09-14T15:08:02","modified_gmt":"2014-09-14T19:08:02","slug":"eugene-james-martin-beta-pictoris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kolajmagazine.com\/content\/content\/collage-exhibitions\/eugene-james-martin-beta-pictoris\/","title":{"rendered":"Eugene James Martin at beta pictoris\/Maus Contemporary"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"eugene-james-martin-early-bird-catches-the-worm\"<\/p>\n

5 September-31 October 2014<\/p>\n

“Favorite Blues”: Eugene James Martin<\/p>\n

Eugene James Martin (Washington, DC, 1938 – Lafayette, Louisiana, 2005) is known for his often gently humorous works that may incorporate whimsical allusions to animal, machine and structural imagery among areas of \u201cpure\u201d, constructed, biomorphic, or disciplined lyrical abstraction. Martin was influenced by Cubism, including its spatial density and collage technique.<\/p>\n

African-American artists\u00a0have been as central to the space between abstraction and representation as Hale Woodruff or Beauford Delaney. They have been as central to the full recognition of women artists as Howardena Pindell or Alma Thomas, and they are central to art today.<\/p>\n

The distinction takes on special urgency for a black Southern artist only now gaining his due, Eugene James Martin. Martin almost fits\u00a0the fashion for outsider art, and if that will help others discover him, terrific. Yet nothing is half as na\u00efve as it may seem. Born in 1938, Martin studied at the Corcoran in Washington, D.C. While his knowledge of Cubism is plain to see, he also knew the bolder colours and outlines of postwar American art. His drawings, in overlapping curves of graphite or pen and ink, treat black and sepia as the rich colours they are for him as well. He started out playing jazz, and one could call that a key influence, too. He worked quickly in both acrylic and collage, like a born improviser bouncing off others in a band. Martin sometimes described his art as \u201csatirical abstracts”, knowing full well that it is not at anyone\u2019s expense. Yet the label does get at the seriousness, the comedy, and the eclecticism. For him, art cannot leave personal experience behind. That may be why a figure keeps making an appearance in Martin\u2019s work, even at its most abstract, and to judge by early titles like Detective Jones<\/em> or Food and Drugs<\/em>, he could be on either side of the law. He could be wielding what looks like a hammer, in another work from 2000, before deciding whether abstraction can survive the blows.<\/p>\n

Martin’s\u00a0work is included in numerous museum collections, including the High\u00a0Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, Louisana; the Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, Louisiana; the Stowitts Museum and Library, Pacific Grove, California; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New Yor; the Paul R. Jones Collection of African American Art, University of Delaware, Newark; the Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, Alabama; the Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Nebraska; the Ohr-O\u2019Keefe Museum of Art, Biloxi, Mississippi; the Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, Louisiana; the Louisiana State University\u00a0Museum of Art, Baton Rouge; the Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art, Savannah, Georgia; and the Munich Museum of Modern Art in Germany.<\/p>\n

(text adapted from materials provided by the gallery)<\/p>\n

\n

INFORMATION<\/h3>\n

beta pictoris gallery\/Maus Contemporary Art<\/strong>
\n2411 Second Avenue North
\nBirmingham, Alabama 35203 USA
\n(205) 413-2999<\/p>\n

Hours:<\/strong>
\nWednesday-Friday, 1-4PM
\nSaturday, 11AM-3PM
\nor by appointment<\/p>\n

MAP<\/a> | WEBSITE<\/a>\u00a0| FACEBOOK<\/a><\/p>\n

Image:<\/strong>
\nEarly Bird Gets the Worm<\/em>
\nby\u00a0Eugene James Martin
\nca. 13.25″x10.25″
\npastel, graphite, coloured pencil, pen, and ink on paper
\n1988
\nCourtesy of\u00a0beta pictoris gallery\/Maus Contemporary Art, Birmingham, Alabama<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5 September-31 October 2014 “Favorite Blues”: Eugene James Martin Eugene James Martin (Washington, DC, 1938 – Lafayette, Louisiana, 2005) is known for his often gently humorous works that may incorporate whimsical allusions to animal, machine and structural imagery among areas…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kolajmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/eugene-james-martin-early-bird-catches-the-worm.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QTD7-Px","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12508,"url":"https:\/\/kolajmagazine.com\/content\/content\/collage-exhibitions\/heterochronic-collages\/","url_meta":{"origin":3195,"position":0},"title":"Heterochronic Collages","author":"Christopher Byrne","date":"23 April 2022","format":"gallery","excerpt":"untitled by Eugene J. Martin29\"x41\"; 1990s acrylic painting and 1970 felt tip drawing on rag paper; undated (c. 1990s). Courtesy of the the Acadiana Center for the Arts. COLLAGE ON VIEW Eugene J. Martin: Heterochronic Collages at the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette, Louisiana, USA12 February-14 May 2022\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Exhibitions"","block_context":{"text":"Exhibitions","link":"https:\/\/kolajmagazine.com\/content\/category\/content\/collage-exhibitions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kolajmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/eugene-j-martin-untitled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kolajmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/eugene-j-martin-untitled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kolajmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/eugene-j-martin-untitled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kolajmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/eugene-j-martin-untitled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11839,"url":"https:\/\/kolajmagazine.com\/content\/content\/collage-exhibitions\/abstraction\/","url_meta":{"origin":3195,"position":1},"title":"Abstraction","author":"Christopher Byrne","date":"24 November 2021","format":"gallery","excerpt":"La Primavera by Romare Bearden44\"x56\"; various papers with fabric, paint, ink, and graphite on fiberboard; 1967. Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio Museum Purchase, Derby Fund from the Philip J. and Suzanne Schiller Collection of American Social Commentary Art 1930\u20131970. \u00a9 Romare Bearden Foundation \/ VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Exhibitions"","block_context":{"text":"Exhibitions","link":"https:\/\/kolajmagazine.com\/content\/category\/content\/collage-exhibitions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kolajmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/romare-bearden-la-primavera.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kolajmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/romare-bearden-la-primavera.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kolajmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/romare-bearden-la-primavera.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kolajmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/romare-bearden-la-primavera.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7956,"url":"https:\/\/kolajmagazine.com\/content\/content\/collage-exhibitions\/age-of-collage-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":3195,"position":2},"title":"Age of Collage 2","author":"Christopher Byrne","date":"17 March 2019","format":"gallery","excerpt":"COLLAGE ON VIEW Age of Collage 2 at Feinkunst Kr\u00fcger in Hamburg, Germany 3-23 March 2019 Curators Dennis Busch and Ralf Kr\u00fcger present new, contemporary collage work by thirty-three international artists. 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