John Marin
John Marin was a pioneering American painter recognized for his unique modern style that blended influences from contemporary European art movements. Initially trained in architecture and later at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Marin encountered modern art during a trip to Paris in 1920, which significantly shaped his artistic direction. He became known for his abstract expressionist works, particularly his vibrant watercolor landscapes inspired by the natural beauty of Maine and later, New Mexico. Marin's early masterpieces, such as "Maine Islands" and "Red and Green and Blue Autumn," showcased a structural fragmentation and organic rhythm that distinguished his style.
His connections with influential figures like photographer Edward Steichen and art promoter Alfred Stieglitz, who showcased Marin's work in notable exhibitions, helped establish his reputation in the American art scene. Notably, Marin participated in the 1913 Armory Show, which was crucial for introducing modernist art to the U.S. Throughout the 1920s, his works, characterized by direct brushstrokes and emotional depth, solidified his position as a leading figure in American abstract expressionism and influenced future artists known as the Taos Moderns. Marin's legacy continues to resonate within the art community, reflecting the cross-cultural dialogues of his time.
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Subject Terms
John Marin
- Born: December 23, 1870
- Birthplace: Rutherford, New Jersey
- Died: October 2, 1953
- Place of death: Cape Split, Maine
Identification: American modernist artist
John Marin was one of the first American painters to express an individual modern style synthesized from contemporary European art movements.
First exposed to modern art in Paris, France, in 1920, Marin developed his abstract expressionist painting style in the following years. During summers with his family in Maine, the artist began exploring less urban landscapes and focusing on the coastline. His watercolors Maine Islands (1922) and Red and Green and Blue Autumn (1921) maintain the structural fragmentation of earlier cityscape paintings but exhibit a new organic rhythm with vivid color.
Marin’s early professional education included architectural studies and practice, followed by formal art training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia from 1899 to 1901. A more significant influence to his 1920s painting style was his six-year journey throughout Europe, beginning in 1905. Marin’s distinctive watercolor style soon emerged, which especially featured translucent color washes. His compositions and subject matter became abstract forms with opaque linear elements that would later be the foundations of his signature style.
While in Paris, Marin met photographer Edward Steichen, who would prove to be instrumental to the artist’s future success in the United States. Steichen returned to New York with several Marin watercolors and showed them to fellow photographer Alfred Stieglitz, whose Photo Secession Gallery was an important venue for early American modernists. In 1910, Stieglitz exhibited Marin’s first show. His reputation as a leading American painter was established in 1913 when he was included in the Armory Show, an exhibition credited with introducing twentieth-century Parisian art movements to the American public.
Watercolor paintings dominated Marin’s work in the 1920s. Movement in Brown with Sun (1928) was part of a series depicting various views of the Brooklyn Bridge with the inclusion of the sun and its surrounding aura. This painterly style was reminiscent of the natural and organic rhythms found in Marin’s earlier coastline paintings.
In 1929 and 1930, Mabel Dodge Luhan, an important collector and patron of the arts, invited Marin to Taos, New Mexico. He completed approximately one hundred paintings inspired by the new geography and cultures he encountered during this time. Dance of the San Domingo Indians (1929) and Entrance to Hondo Canyon (1930) reflect the focus of many of his New Mexico watercolors.
Impact
Marin was an established American abstract expressionist in the 1920s, portraying landscapes and city scapes with direct brushstrokes and conveying an emotional experience to the viewer. By the end of the decade, his distinctive style paved the way for a new generation of artists known as Taos Moderns.
Bibliography
Curry, Larry. John Marin, 1870–1953: A Centennial Exhibition. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1970.
Fine, Ruth Eileen. John Marin Collection of the Colby College Museum of Art. Waterville, Me.: Colby College, 2003.
Reich, Sheldon. John Marin: A Stylistic Analysis and Catalogue Raisonné. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1970.