First published: Winter 2014
The boldly abstract or semi-abstract, pastel-on-paper drawings the Australian artist Julian Martin has been making for many years are some of the freshest essays in pure colour and form to have emerged on the outsider/self-taught art scene in a long time. Although Martin has developed an appreciative audience and won praise for his work in his homeland, where he has participated in the studio-art programme at Arts Project Australia, in a Melbourne suburb, for more than two decades, only recently has his art begun to attract significant attention overseas.
Untitled (Woman and Two Children), 2011, pastel on paper, 15 x 10.8 ins., 38.1 x 27.5 cm, courtesy of the artist, Arts Project Australia and Fleischer/Ollman
Early in 2014, at two high-profile events in New York, Martin’s work caught the eyes of established collectors in the outsider/self-taught field and of art aficionados more rooted in the aesthetics of classic modernism and more contemporary modes of art-making. They were shown in New York at the Armory Show, an annual fair featuring top-quality works of modern and contemporary art, and at the Outsider Art Fair. Recently, at its own gallery, Arts Project Australia presented “Transformer”, a retrospective exhibition that examined the past 25 years of Martin’s career.
This is an article extract; read the full article in Raw Vision #84
