Religion of Love

Agnes Martin (1912–2004) wrote Religion of Love, a late statement on her work and thought, sometime in the 1990s. Composed of short, aphoristic statements and paragraphs, it lucidly states her art credo and life advice: “Love makes us want to do all the good things. Get up in the morning and work for life.” “The part of the mind that’s aware of perfection tells us everything that is good.” “You can contact the mind by asking for help.” Somewhat uncharacteristically, Martin asked her friend Richard Tuttle to illustrate it. As Tuttle writes in his introduction, “on the one hand, it reconfirms her most classical thought (Beauty is the mystery of life), and, on the other, adds new thought with an urgency only found in a mature artist of her age and persuasion.” This beautiful, slim volume constitutes both an important artist’s statement and a great collaboration.