Kenneth Martin

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

Life and work

Kenneth Martin visited only the Sheffield School of Art before studying from 1929 to 1932 on a scholarship at the Royal College of Art in London. There he met Mary Balmford (1907-1969), whom he married in 1930, as Mary Martin also a world-renowned artist was.

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

Martin began in the 1940s after and paint according to more abstract. From the year 1951 he created his first metal structures and kinetic sculptures as a mobile wire sculptures were based on the principle of mathematical logic. From 1946 to 1967 he was a guest lecturer at Goldsmiths College of Art in London.

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

Kenneth and Mary Martin took part along with Pasmore in a number of group exhibitions in the 1950s. Kenneth and Mary had their first joint solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts ( ICA) in London in 1960. During the 1960s, Kenneth Martin held a course in the Barry Summer School and recruited his former student Peter Lowe as his assistant.

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

From the year 1969, after the death of his wife, he created his " chance and order" work. These were sequences and series of drawings, paintings and prints, which deals with the combination of random (chance) and system (Order ) employed. With these works, he was also represented at documenta 6 in 1977.

Literature and sources

  • Exhibition catalog for Documenta IV: IV documentation. International Exhibition; Catalogue: Volume 1: ( painting and sculpture ); Volume 2: (graphics / objects ); Kassel 1968
  • Kimpel, Harald / stem, Karin: documenta IV International Exhibition 1968 - A photographic reconstruction ( Series of the documenta - Archives); Bremen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86108-524-9
  • Catalog for Documenta 6: Volume 1: painting, sculpture / Environment, Performance; Volume 2: Photography, Film, Video; Volume 3: drawings, utopian design, books; Kassel 1977 ISBN 3-920453-00- X
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