The Estate of Martha Alf
It is about the perfection of the banal and the seriousness of the ridiculous.
—Martha Alf
Selected Works
Opposites and Contradictions
Michael Kohn Gallery is pleased to announce a celebratory retrospective of works by late American artist Martha Alf (1930 - 2019). Opening June 24th, this is the gallery’s inaugural exhibition with the Estate of Martha Alf since announcing representation in 2021.
A true California native, Martha Alf was born in Berkeley and spent her entire life and career practicing between San Diego and Los Angeles. Active since the early 1960s, Alf completed her graduate studies with California artists William Brice, Richard Diebenkorn and Lee Mullican at UCLA. Her work is imbued with a spectrum of influences ranging from Old Masters to Pop Art and Minimalism. Alf is best known for her critically-acclaimed “Cylinder Paintings”, depicting rolls of toilet paper. This series was later featured in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 1975 Biennial. Revered as the “The Vermeer of Pears”, Alf’s later still-life drawings and paintings of fruits and vegetables bathed in natural light, allude to a psychological tension within her subjects.
Of the representation and exhibition, Michael Kohn, owner of Michael Kohn Gallery, exclaims, “we are elated and honored to represent the works of Martha Alf in our gallery and in art fairs around the world. From the irreverence of Pop to the monolith of Minimalism, Alf embodies wide-ranging influences in an utterly emotive and beautiful manner, and this work is now ripe for rediscovery.”
Alf’s “Cylinder Paintings” inject an element of spectacle to commonplace objects, transforming the mundane through deft composition and radiant color. The monumentality of her still-lifes is achieved by her skillful depiction of light. In a 1983 interview Alf explained, “I like things organized by simple means such as a light source. Light passing through creates my subjects.”
A second series in the exhibition showcases her luminous graphite drawings rendered by a methodical, labor-intensive application of diagonal strokes or “lines that don’t end with the object’s edges” according to the artist. This technique continued in her dramatic depictions of pears conveying explorations of human relationships through their varying arrangements and anthropomorphic presence. Alf’s subtle, yet profoundly evocative body of work makes visible the duality of the everyday amidst its grand mystery.
About the Artist
Born 1930, Berkeley, California
Died 2019, Santa Monica, California
EDUCATION
1970 MFA, Painting, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
1963 MA, Art, San Diego State University. San Diego, CA
1952 BA, Pyschology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA