Todd Gibson, speaking about Agnes Martin (and in particular, his favorite Martin, Milk River, at the Whitney Museum):
Some paintings make for great public lecture material. Others are best used for quiet, personal contemplation. Martin’s work from the 1960s never fails to bring me to a place that even other great artists who strove to give the viewer a transcendent moment (artists like Rothko, for example) can’t reach. And as much as I would like to think that I can help people see depth and meaning in art that they at first perceive to be inaccessible, I don’t think I would be able to communicate that experience effectively to a large group of museum visitors. Sometimes things are just better seen and felt rather than analyzed and described.
Just naming a painting Milk River invites an honorific silence and contemplation.
“honorific silence and contemplation” – Milk River
I agree with this, Deborah….. to me “milk” connotes elemental, life-giving sustenance, a most basic necessity available to all humans from their earliest ages as in mother’s milk. It is a holy substance. There can be no claim to ownership of either “milk” or a “river”.