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Paul Martin Artist

PAUL MARTIN Photo by Warburton Gallery

PAUL MARTIN (b. Bournemouth, 1948 - 2022) began his studies in the late 1960's at Birmingham School of Art, a college dominated by Abstract Expressionism, before moving to the Royal Academy whose more traditional methods focused largely on life-drawing. Neither approach proved entirely congenial, but Paul described those years as ones of 'productive disagreement'.

 

Martin's own artistic practice was always firmly rooted in nature, but nature seen as a metaphor, never the end but always only the start of the journey. Something similar might be said of his use of the human figure: his figures are tangible yet otherworldly. They exist in the here and now, but also somewhere else, in memory perhaps, or in death. Their eyes engage directly with the viewer, a gaze not challenging, but steady and serene and seeking communion. Their hands make mysterious but meaningful gestures, inviting us into their realm, a realm of eutaxic harmony beyond the surface dazzle of the phenomenal world. Myth and folklore have been another source of inspiration for Martin, as indeed has language itself: all three are cultural constructs created over countless centuries, and in all three the process of their becoming is inscribed in their current form.

 

Paul Martin exhibited widely both at home and abroad, and has work in the collections of The Royal Academy, The British Museum and the BBC. Over the course of his career he garnered many awards including The British Institution prize for Printmaking and The Royal Academy Awards for Painting and Printmaking.

 

This website shows both past work as well as later developments in Martin’s thought and art. The works are not philosophical treaties about life and art, but were offered as a guide to looking afresh at the world in which we live and at that which surrounds us.

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COLLECTIONS

British Museum Collection of Modern Drawings

Chancery Bequest, Royal Academy of Art

British Broadcasting Corporation, London

Corporate Mining Company, Perth, Australia

De Weem Collection, The Netherlands

The Cok Collection, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Altarpiece, St Luke’s Church, London

Ikons, Church of the Ascension, Rugby

Lynda Todd Collection, Bournemouth

Art in Healthcare, Scotland

The Royal Bank of Scotland

 

PRIZES AND BURSARIES

British Institution Prize for Printmaking

David Murray Scholarship for Landscape

Hacker Prize for Printmaking

Royal Academy Award for Printmaking

RA Award for Academic Drawing and Painting

Elizabeth Greenshield Foundation Award

 

EXHIBITIONS

1969 Northern Young Contemporaries Exhibition

1971 - 1973 Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions

1972 National Touring Exhibition, Arts Council

1975 Free University Amsterdam

1976 - 1977 Radlett Gallery, Hertfordshire

1978 - 1984 Aix-en-Provence, France

1984 - 1986 William Curtis Gallery, Perth, Australia

1987 Mandorla Prize Exhibition, Australia

1990 - 1996 Rugby School, Warwickshire

1991 De Weem Gallery, Westeremden, The Netherlands

1992 - 1995 Burton Dassett, Warwickshire

1994 Wellcome Trust, London

1998 Evreux, France

1998 Art Revisited, Groningen, The Netherlands

1998 Longland and Ryle Gallery, London

1999 Art Revisited, Groningen, The Netherlands

1999 St Luke's Church, Highgate, London

2001 Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh

2002 Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh

2003 Flying Colours Gallery, Edinburgh

2004 Northlight Gallery, Huddersfield

2005 Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh

2006 Flying Colours Gallery, London

2008 Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh

2009 The Henderson Gallery, Edinburgh

2011 New College, University of Edinburgh

2014 Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh

2014 Warburton Gallery, Edinburgh

2014 King Street Gallery on William, Sydney, Australia

2015 Warburton Gallery, Edinburgh

2018 Doubtfire Gallery, Edinburgh

2019 Aberfeldy Watermill Gallery, Perthshire

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