John Marin: Seeing Through To Modernism

Blue Sea                                              John Marin, 1945

In 1969, I first saw paintings by John Marin (1870-1953) when my history professor, David Grimsted, took his class to the Phillips Collection (Dupont Circle, Washington) for an exploration of American culture through the artist's eye. Not sure how much history was absorbed that day but I left with a deep appreciation of John Marin's work that is still going strong after 50 years. Marin's style largely influenced my interest in the watercolors of the Southern artist, Walter Inglis Anderson, a decade later. By that time visual arts had taken on a far more significant role in my career, a role never imagined, but one I came to appreciate and enjoy.  

Marin was born on this day in Rutherford, New Jersey, in the midst of the nation's struggling recovery from the Civil War. He was trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Anderson attended there 1923 - 1928) then spent a few years searching for his muse in Europe before returning to his home country where he continued perfecting his technique in watercolors. He was almost forty before his serious breakthrough into the art world that included an exhibit at the famous Armory Show of 1913. A decade later he had attracted the attention of major collectors including Duncan Phillips whose world-renowned collection of modern art would form the core of the Phillips Memorial Gallery, now known as the Phillips Collection.

Lower New York From The Bridge           John Marin, 1914

The period from 1870 to 1920 was a transitional one as the United States evolved into the world's leading economy. As one of the first modernists in American art, John Marin had a strong influence on the transition of painting and illustration well into the 20th century. I enjoy his balance of realism and abstraction, the opacity of color, and the fact that he interpreted a sense of place incorporating both nature and its cultural overlay.

For more information on the techniques that made Marin so significant, here is a brief video, "John Marin's Watercolors: A Medium for Modernism," produced by the Art institute of Chicago:

How to paint the landscape: First you make your bow to the landscape. Then you wait, and if the landscape bows to you, then, and only then, can you paint the landscape. 

                                                    John Marin

Lower Manhattan                                                   John Marin, 1920