Wikipedia

Keith Martin (artist)

Keith Martin (also known as Keith Morrow Martin) was an American abstract and surrealist painter and collagist during the 20th century.[1] His paintings are in a multitude of art museums and collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The National Gallery of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art.[2][3][4]

Keith Morrow Martin
Born1911
Lincoln, Nebraska, United States
Died1983
Cockeysville, Maryland, United States
Alma materUniversity of Nebraska, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
StyleAbstraction, surrealism, and collage

Biography

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Keith Morrow Martin was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1911.[5][2] He studied fine arts at the University of Nebraska, graduating in the class of 1933.[6] During his studies, Martin would win a state-wide poster contest in 1930.[7] After graduating, Martin would attend the Art Institute of Chicago with his childhood friend and fellow artist Charles Rain, with both of them traveling to a variety of European cities such as Vienna, Paris, and Berlin in the 1930s-1940s.[8] Martin served in the army as a camouflager and was discharged in the autumn of 1945.[1][6]

Although he lived in New York from 1937-1941, Martin's main residence was in Baltimore, Maryland, where he spent the majority of his career (35 years), including teaching at the Baltimore Museum of Art from 1958-68.[9][1] He died in Cockeysville, Maryland, in 1983.[2]

Career and Exhibitions

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Keith Martin's art style shifted throughout his career, beginning in a surrealist style during the 1930s-1940s and changing to abstraction in the 1950s.[10]

In 1935, Keith Martin had a solo exhibition at the Julien Levy gallery in New York City, an early center for surrealist and modern art.[11] In 1936 and 1937, Martin designed costumes for ballets performed by the School of American Ballet.[4][12] Martin also participated in a show in Minneapolis in 1947 alongside other Nebraskan artists, including Dwight Kirsch and Gladys M. Lux.[13] Later this same year, Martin's paintingThe Tragedy of Hamlet would go on display at an exhibition at the University of Nebraska.[13] In 1956, Martin had another exhibition in New York, this time at the Duveen-Graham Gallery.[14]

Collections

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  • The University of Maryland has a collection of ink drawings and lithographs by Keith Martin.[15]
  • The Art Institute of Chicago has Martin's painting The Tragedy of Hamlet from 1947.[5]
  • The Museum of Modern Art has a collection of Martin's ballet costume drawings.[4]
  • The Smithsonian American Art Museum has five of Martin's artworks: Witch Box (1964), Yellow Lily #1 (1971), Disaster Area (1970), Dried Leaves (1965), and Altar Table (1966).[2]
  • The National Gallery of Art has several works by Martin, including drawings and a collage.[3]
  • The Sheldon Museum of Art has a variety of paintings, drawings, and collages by Keith Martin.[16]
  • The Museum of Nebraska Art has a collection of some of Martin's paintings and drawings.[17]
  • The Baltimore Museum of Art has several paintings, drawings, and collages by Martin.[18]
  • In 2019, Keith Martin's costume designs for the ballets Harlequin for President and Show Piece were featured in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art about Lincoln Kirstein, a co-founder of the New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Keith Morrow Martin – U.S. Department of State". Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  2. ^ a b c d "Keith Martin | Smithsonian American Art Museum". americanart.si.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  3. ^ a b "Collection Search Results". www.nga.gov. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  4. ^ a b c d "Keith Morrow Martin". MoMa. March 23, 2024.
  5. ^ a b "Keith Morrow Martin". The Art Institute of Chicago. 1911. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  6. ^ a b "The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, April 04, 1946, Page Page 4, Image 4 « Nebraska Newspapers". nebnewspapers.unl.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  7. ^ "The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, February 12, 1930, Page FOUR, Image 4 « Nebraska Newspapers". nebnewspapers.unl.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  8. ^ Sheldon Museum of Art; Ruud, Brandon K.; Nosan, Gregory, eds. (2014). Painting from the collection of the Sheldon Museum of Art. American transnationalism: perspectives from the Sheldon Museum of Art. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-4869-4.
  9. ^ "Keith Morrow Martin Sold at Auction Prices". Invaluable. 2024-04-04. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
  10. ^ Balder, Alton Parker (1955). Six Maryland Artists: A Study In Drawings (1st ed.). Baltimore, Maryland: Balboa Publications. pp. 79–80. ISBN 978-1127535484.
  11. ^ "The daily Nebraskan ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, March 12, 1935, Page TWO, Image 2 « Nebraska Newspapers". 1935-03-12. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  12. ^ McCausland, Elizabeth (1938). "Gallery Notes". Parnassus. 10 (1): 44–47. doi:10.2307/771592. ISSN 1543-6314. JSTOR 771592.
  13. ^ a b "The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, September 21, 1947, Image 1 « Nebraska Newspapers". nebnewspapers.unl.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  14. ^ "News Reports". College Art Journal. 15 (3): 265–276. 1956. ISSN 1543-6322. JSTOR 773255.
  15. ^ "Keith Morrow Martin | University of Maryland Art Gallery". artgallery.umd.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
  16. ^ "eMuseumPlus - Collection | Result". emp-web-95.zetcom.ch. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
  17. ^ Kearney, dpi graphics, University of Nebraska at (2016-12-20). "Keith Martin: MONA collection artwork | MONA". Retrieved 2024-03-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ "Search keith martin (Objects) – Search – The Baltimore Museum of Art | Baltimore Museum of Art". collection.artbma.org. Retrieved 2024-03-28.

Further reading

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