Chris Martin

Chris Martin's vibrant, fun paintings are begging to be explored.

Chris Martin Goes "Big" at the Corcoran

It’s not everyday you see an artist welcome chickens and skunks to stomp across his masterpieces.

But then again, Chris Martin isn’t your everyday artist. The D.C. native (he now lives in New York), 56, strives to connect nature and humanity, even if that means a few unwanted guests are part of that equation.

You’ll find paw prints and chicken scratches from Martin’s choice to work in unusual settings—the rooftop of his New York townhouse, his back lawn in a summer home—but they add quirkiness to the vibrant paintings adorning the walls of the Corcoran.

The three separate installations are part of “Chris Martin: Painting Big,” which runs through October 23 (a smaller retrospective of his work, right, runs through Aug. 28). Most awe-inspiring are the three large-scale pieces highlighting Martin’s travels. One painting depicts the sunrise in India along the Ganges River, while another draws upon evening in the Catskill Mountains. Glancing at the mammoth “Light Brahma Stomp,” I see evocations of water, but another glance leads to thoughts of Middle Eastern spires.

Sarah Newman, curator of contemporary art at the Corcoran, says that’s exactly what’s supposed to happen with a Martin painting.

“He invites all of these associations with his work,” Newman says. She notes that Martin doesn’t declare, “This work means this—it it really is about the display of the work and [what] you feel. The paintings have their own lives.”

You will nonetheless find a bit of Martin cleverly placed on each painting. Look specifically at “Radio Sunset,” (far right in photo, left) with 1,000 tons of glitter (seriously) sneakily hiding photos of Martin’s childhood. He pays homage to two radio stations he grew up listening to and includes photos of musical icons James Brown and Aretha Franklin. Martin calls it a “kind of inner landscape of great radio music.”

The Godfather of Soul points to a key moment in Martin’s life: when he decided his career. “I was convinced I wanted to be an artist at age 14,” he says. “I was drinking Coca-Cola, painting Picasso-esque paintings and listening to James Brown and thought to myself, ‘this is it.’”

Martin also uses found material in his works—pieces of bread that were preserved and painted white (an obvious play on “white bread”), a torn up part of a Persian rug, newspapers and even discarded artichoke leaves in a fall foliage setting.

Martin clearly has a special spot for the outside world, shown with various mushroom additions to some of his paintings, and a curious affinity for gnomes (don’t miss the bright pink and green ones in his retrospective).  

The artist spent months simply sitting in the Corcoran’s atrium while thinking about the types of paintings he wanted to do for the museum. Martin says he drew his inspiration for the paintings from the proportions and classical atrium architecture and natural light flooding the space.

“Many of my paintings are some kind of landscape—they are abstract paintings—but they are also landscapes,” Martin says.

Newman, who has known Martin for years, says she was most excited about putting together his retrospective since all his works are so different.

“You wouldn’t necessarily know that these are by the same artist, but the more you look at them, you do see common themes and motifs,” Newman says.

But by all means, don’t try and put Martin in a box with other categories of artists. Though his work is abstract, each painting is so different from the next it’s hard to pin down exactly what the artist was thinking with each stroke.

Newman says, that’s just him. “He’s not wedded to a particular way of or style, it’s just whatever works for him,” says Newman.

More Summer Fun at the Corcoran

Events not to miss include an evening with the artist on Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. (tickets $12 for members, $15 for the public) and a family painting and mixed media workshop on Sept. 17 (ages 5-7, $10 per child with member discounts). For more information, check out the Corcoran’s website. The Corcoran also offers free admission on Saturdays for the remainder of the summer.

(photos by Denny Henry and provided by the Corcoran)