AGNES MARTIN: Paintings and Drawings 1977–1991, Serpentine Gallery, London, 1993

Exhibition catalogue, Serpentine Gallery, London, 1993. Illustrated softcover; 48 pages; 23 × 30 cm; colour and black-and-white reproductions. Texts by Germano Celant and Agnes Martin; interview with Irving Sandler. ISBN 978-1-870814-71-3.

Condition: good; general rubbing, surface marking and age toning to the white covers, with creasing and softening at the edges and corners. Minor marks visible to several interior pages. Binding remains secure. Original Serpentine Gallery £4.00 price label retained on the rear cover.

Published for Martin’s exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, 8 September–24 October 1993 — the first public presentation of her work in Britain since 1977. The catalogue brings together paintings and drawings made between 1977 and 1991, belonging to the mature period in which the earlier grid opened into pale horizontal bands, repeated lines and restrained intervals of colour.

Martin had withdrawn from the New York art world in 1967 and returned to painting during the 1970s. Although frequently placed beside Minimalism, she understood her paintings through the language of Abstract Expressionism, seeking impersonal states — happiness, innocence, beauty — rather than individual expression.

The catalogue’s design closely follows the work. A nearly empty white field, a single grid and quiet grey typography turn the cover into an extension of Martin’s visual structure. Inside, generous margins and lightly printed reproductions preserve the difficulty of transferring paintings built from minute tonal differences onto paper.

The retained £4 gallery label records the publication’s original position within the exhibition: an accessible catalogue produced for immediate circulation. More than thirty years later, the price remains attached while the catalogue has moved from gallery stock to an increasingly difficult-to-find document of an important London exhibition.

Securely packed; tracked UK and international shipping available.