Happy Holiday, 1999

In 1992 Parkin went to see the Whitney Museum’s retrospective of Agnes Martin’s art. It was particularly meaningful to her because while on the AGO Women’s Committee, she helped purchase a Martin for the gallery’s collection.

“I’ve always loved Martin’s painting. When I saw her retrospective at the Whitney, I was blown away by it. When you see an entire room of nothing, it’s so moving. I am not religious, but the experience was very spiritual to me. The reductive quality of Martin’s art makes it very special. Her work reflects the desert where she lived in New Mexico. Somehow, that permeates into the viewer—you can feel it. There is an underlying reference to a landscape in the work, it is not a geometric kind of Minimalism. Her work is about time and space, which she expresses with minimal means.

“With Minimalism the connection does not automatically happen with most people—and I don’t try to force anybody to feel the way that I feel. If one spends the time looking at a work and letting the work speak to you, eventually you come to a connection. But you have to have the willingness to give time to the work.”