Page 29 - Studio International - March 1968

Statement by Mary Martin
December 1967

Constructed abstract art is not the same as Construc­
tivism. The fast constructed rel iefs I made were based
on the moving format of Cubism combined with a
system of positive and negative spaces (1951-4).
The positive-negative line of Paul Klee helped me to
break out of this. Firstly by use of a colour logic, basing
the relief on an idea of folded, coloured strata (Black
Relief 1957, White Relief 1959). At the same time as
making these 'crowded' reliefs, I was developing a
theory of minimal drawing which culminated in the
arrangement of the walls in No. 9 'This is Tomorrow'
Whitechapel 1956. The series of Pierced Reliefs were
also based on minimal drawing.
Thirdly, as a result of a letter from Biederman in 1955
in which he urged the use of open planes, I began to
do this in 1961-2. As works I felt they were even more
minimal in character, but I was using permutations of
number. From then on the permutations took over and,
by using a half-cube with a reflecting hypotenuse, I
found I could build up a structure of 'superpatterns'.
°
Using a 45 angle extracts most from the reflection
and in some recent works the reflection is as important
as the structure (Compound Rhythms 1966, coll. Peter
Stuyvesant Foundation, London).
Recently I have returned to the open plane and to the
orthogonal relief, but I made one large work in 1966
(Inversions) which combined both reflections and
open planes.
Using ½ in. coloured perspex I have made a series of
six 'master' reliefs, which are permutations of six
related volumes. They are synthetic constructions, i.e.
colour, volume and space combined architectonically.
As with al I works based on the constructing process
the result is unforeseen. The process is nuclear and it
is in this that it differs from Constructivism. That is to
say that one commences with a single cell, or unit, a
logical process of growth is applied and, as with
kinetic and optical art, which are branches of con­
struction, the whole, or the effect, is unforeseen until
the work is complete.

Top
Spiral 1963
Stainless steel, painted wood on formica, on wood
support
21 X 21 X 4½ in.
Collection: Tate Gallery
Right
Perspex group on orange (E) 1967
Perspex on wood
24 X 24 X 7¼ in.
121