Tony Martin Papers

Call Number

MSS.190

Date

1960-2018, inclusive

Creator

Martin, Tony, 1937-

Extent

5.75 Linear Feet in 3 record cartons, 1 half manuscript box, 1 small flat box, and 1 oversize flat box.

Language of Materials

English .

Abstract

The Tony Martin Papers document Martin's career as a multimedia artist. Martin was one of the first artists to use light as an artistic medium. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship, Martin has worked regularly with such composers as Pauline Oliveros, Morton Subotnick and David Tudor. The Papers include correspondence, sketches, announcements and other documents pertaining to Martin's artistic production and exhibitions. They also include video and film that was used in Martin's artworks, as well as video documentation of performances.

Biographical Note

Tony Martin was born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1937. He studied at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and The Art Institute of Chicago. A painter from the outset, Martin is one of the first artists to use light as a medium, often incorporating light compositions and visual projections into musical performances and interactive installations. He is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship, and has worked regularly with such composers as Pauline Oliveros, Morton Subotnick and David Tudor.

Martin makes works that engage the viewer as a participant. This interest in interactivity began in 1962 with his first multisensory environmental piece, "Theater For Walkers, Talkers, Touchers" (1962); this work, as well as current works, apply principles of resonance and feedback through photo and proximity electronics. Martin has collaborated with David Tudor for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, created work for the E.A.T. Pepsi Pavilion at Expo 70, in Osaka, Japan, and has exhibited his work at galleries and museums worldwide.

In 1993, Martin helped co-found The Painting Center, with the aim of providing exhibition space to both emerging and mature painters pursuing various formal directions.

Sources:

- http://www.tonymartin.us/index.html

One and Two Person Exhibitions

2009 Mills Music Festival, two performances: "Sound.Light.Migrations",'09 with Pauline Oliveros, "Desert Ambulance",'63 with Ramon Sender
2009 "Light Pendulum" an interactive light sculpture commissioned for 103point9wavefarm , Catskill, NY
2008 Miami-Basel Artfair: Multiprojector performance sponsored by PS1
2009 Art Students League, NYC and Vytlacil Center: performances Art and Music
2006 Mills College, Oakland, CA, Songlines Series Visual Compositions
2005 James Madison University, Sawhill Gallery, Harrisburg, VA Galaxy
2003 Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY Visual Poetry In Light In Time
2002 Electronic Arts Intermix, New York, NY Artists' Web Projects Launch Galaxy - work for the Web
2002 Roxbury Arts Group, Roxbury, NY The Light In Between, one person show
2002 Studio 18 Gallery, New York, NY Tony Martin/Bendel Hydes
2000 Los Angles County Museum of Art San Francisco Tape Center, retrosp.
1998 Simon Gallery, Morristown, NJ Tony Martin: Paintings
1996 salon Catherine Kessedjian, The Hague, Netherlands Tony Martin new work
1996 Myung Sook Lee Gallery, New York, NY November To November: A Year
1995 The Painting Center, New York, NY
1995 Cyr Center Gallery, Stamford, NY Tony Martin: Paintings, works on paper 1994
1994 The Painting Center, NYC , one person exhibition
1991 Scott Alan Gallery, New York, NY Tony Martin/Paul Sierra
1990 Scott Alan Gallery, New York, NY Tony Martin: Works On Paper
1981 The Katonah Gallery, Katonah, NY Art Of Reaction
1980 Institute for Art and Urban Resources, P.S. 1, Long Island City, NY
1974 Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
1974 Light Composition for Merce Cunningham, New York, NY
1971 Cooper Union Gallery, New York, NY, "Spectral Time Tide"
1970 Howard Wise Gallery, New York, NY
1969 Whitney Museum, New York, NY Sight And Sound, Light Cook-assisted by Bill Sward, compositions with Mel Powell and Jean Erdman
1968,1969 - Howard Wise Gallery, New York, NY one person exhibitions The Gameroom (docu.-BBC), The Well, Door, You Me We, Column. These are all viewer-participatory, interactive sculptures and installations now in permanent collections of The Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY and The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, NY
1967 Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY Electronic Chamber
1963 Batman Gallery, San Francisco, CA Paintings: Anthony Martin
1962 San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA

Group Exhibitions

2007 Far Fields, Treadwell, NY Variations: Dark and Light
2007 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Summer Of Love
2007 The 'temporary Museum Of Art, Brooklyn, NY
2007 Holland Tunnel, Brooklyn, NY Art Club Jazz
2006 Leubsdorf Art Gallery at Hunter College, New York, NY To Shanghai And Back
2006 The Painting Center New York, NY 13th Anniversary Show
2006 Museum Of The City Of New York, New York, NY Light Transforms The Night
2006 Rotterdam Film Festival, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Legendary Light Shows
2005 Seoul, Korea Film Festival, Five Stanzas
2005 National Academy Invitational, National Academy Museum, New York, NY 179th Annual Invitational Exhibition (catalogue)
2004 EMPAC at RPI, Troy, NY Wow and Flutter (SFMTC compositions and Silent Light) 2003 Studio 18 Gallery New York, NY Flow: From The Bottom Up
2002 Eyebeam Atelier, New York, NY Beta Launch
2001 Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Palm Beach FL Brooklyn! (catalogue)
2001 New York Studio School, New York Painting Abstraction II
2001 to present - Catskill Rural Aids Society, Roxbury, NY Annual Art For Life Auction
2000 Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
1999 De Nederlandsche Bank, Amsterdam, The Netherlands New Tide: Dutch and American Painters
1999 Westbeth Gallery, New York, NY The Power Of Drawing
1999 76 Varick New York, NY (Four person exhibition)
1998 The Gallery on the Hudson, Irvington, NY Looking For The Light
1998 Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY New Tide: Dutch & American Painters (catalogue)
1998 Art Actual, Aula De Lletres, Barcelona, Spain
1997 Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY Works from Pierogi Gallery Flat Files also: Gasworks (London) and The Corner House (Manchester) England
1996 Art Initiatives, New York, NY Appraising Abstraction
1995 PSA Art Showcase Public Securities Association, New York, NY Continuity And Change (catalogue)
1994 The Gallery at Kohn Pedersen Fox, New York, NY also: The Gallery at Hastings On Hudson, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY Abstract Expressionism: An Ongoing Legacy
1993 E.S. Vandam Gallery, New York, NY Presence And Absence The Painting Center, New York, NY The Preview Show
1992 Scott Alan Fine Arts New York, NY Abstractus: Recent Works
1991 Stephen Rosenberg Gallery, New York, NY Paper Trail
1989 Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York, NY Architecture As Abstraction (catalogue)
1988 San Francisco Tape Music Center Retrospective, Victoria Theater, San Francisco
1986 University Of Shanghai, China Approaches To Abstraction (catalogue)
1986 Brooklyn Museum Of Art Brooklyn '86 (catalogue)
1983 Institute for Art & Urban Resources, P.S.1, Long Island City, NY
1982 Institute for Art & Urban Resources, P.S.1 Long Island City, NY
1978 Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL Art Of The Space Era (catalogue)
1977 Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL Centennial Exhibition (catalogue)
1977 Max Protetch Gallery, Washington, DC
1975 James Yu Gallery, New York, NY Kinaesthetics 1975
1974 Longridge Mall, Rochester, NY 3 interactive sculptures
1970 Expo 70 , Osaka, Japan Experiments In Art and Technology Pepsi Pavilion
1968 Milwaukee Arts Center, Milwaukee, WI Options (catalogue)- The Gameroom
1968 Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Il. – The Gameroom

Fellowships and Grants

1991 PSC-CUNY Award
1979 NYSCA
1972 NEA Individual Artist Fellowship
1970 Creative Artist Public Service Grant

Public Collections

Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AK
Bayshore Museum, Queensborough Community College, Queens, NY
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
Evergreen International Spot Trading, New York, NY
Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY
The Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University, NY (Anthony Martin Papers)
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Kingsborough Community College, Brooklyn, NY
University of Indiana, Bloomington, IN

Selected Private Collections

Robert Bly, Minneapolis, MN
Marshal Beil, New York, NY
Max Hutchinson and Marion Kaselle, North Branch, NY
Marjorie Kellogg, Sydney, NY
Catherine Kessedjian, Paris, France
Mr. and Mrs. Walter Landor, San Francisco, CA
Joan La Barbara & Morton Subotnick, New York, NY

Lectures and Interviews

2007 EAT - Julie Martin (2 interviews)
2006 Fales Annual Lecture - John Hanhardt, Curator of Film and Video at the Guggenheim re: Tony Martin and other artists
2006 BBC London - Interview with Tony Martin for Norman Granz documentary (re: Granz & artist's father, illustrator David Stone Martin)
2005 The Artists Archive - Tony Martin interviewed in his Brooklyn studio by Robert DiMaro - Dec. 1, 2005
2004 Tony Martin interviewed by Cort Worthington (re: Eyebeam) Feb. 2004
2003 Brown Bag Lectures at The Roger Williams Hotel - Martin on his own work Baruch Smucker Elysian Fields - Tom Welsh
Mode Records - Tony and Morton Subotnick
2001 New York Studio School, New York, NY Evening Lecture Series (April 24th) "Tools For The Spirit" - lecture by Martin on his work
1968 BBC film - Howard Wise Gallery exhibition "The Gameroom"

New Publication - www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10623.html

Selected Bibliography

Alloway, Lawrence, Options Milwaukee Arts Center, 1968 Exhibition catalogue
Brougher, Kerry, Visual Music , Hirshhorn Museum - MOCA-LA ,2005
Bernstein, David W., editor The San Francisco Tape Music Center: 60's Counterculture and The Avant Garde University Of California Press, 2008 (DVD included)
Chadabe, Joel, Electric Sound: The Past and Promise of Electronic Music Prentice Hall, 1996
Edelman, Robert G., Art In America p.104 December 1994
Eshoo, Amy, editor 560 Broadway: A New York Drawing Collection at Work, 1991 - 2006 Fifth Floor Foundation in association with Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2007
Farrington, Margot Flares and Fathoms Bright Hill Press, 2005 (poetry collection, front cover)
Frank, Peter, L.A. Weekly December 21, 2000 p.46
Gordon, Alastair Spaced Out, Rizzoli, 2008
Henken, John, "Sound/Light Manipulations From "60's Still Pack Power"
Los Angeles Times p. F4 December 13, 2000
Hoodock, Jeff "Interactive Art Offers Surprisingly Human Feel" Daily News Record Harrisburg, VA
Kessedjian, Catherine, The Art I Love Paris, France (book)
Kranz, Stewart Science And Technology In The Arts, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1974
Pearlman, Ellen "Breakthroughs In Light: The Work Of Tony Martin" The Brooklyn Rail p. 24 March/April 2002
Raynor, Vivien, "Technology As A Medium For Artists" New York Times, Feb. 22 Renan, Sheldon The American Underground Film, Dutton, 1967
Richardson, Derk "Avant Experiments" San Francisco Bay Guardian, p. 49 and 52 June 12 - 18 1996
Rogers, Bertha Out Of The Catskills And Just Beyond Bright Hill Press p. 124 - 25 (literary anthology with reproductions of two works)
Rose, Barbara, Pavilion, Dutton, NY 1972
Sanford, Mariellen R. Happenings and Other Acts Routledge, NY, 1995
Schwartz, Barry The New Humanism: Art In A Time Of Change, Praeger, NY 1974
Tisano, Teresa Sauer, editor Notations 21, Mark Batty, 2008 (front cover ,visual scores)
Tompkins, Calvin "Onward and Upward With The Arts" The New Yorker, NY 1970
Zimmer, William "Abstract Expressionism Is Alive And Well" New York Times p. 18, November 27, 1994

Webwork - http://www.eai.org/eai/title.htm?id=7609

Works on DVD/Film/Tape

Mode Records (SideWinder/Until Spring)
Performance at Mills College for Songlines Series - recorded Nov. 16th, 2006
Wow & Flutter Festival - EMPAC 2004
Victoria Theater SF, Ca. 1986 Retrospective
Center For Visual Music, LA,Ca. (archives)
Baltimore, Rotterdam, Seoul - Film and Video Festivals

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into four series, some of which are further arranged into subseries.

Series I. Documentary and Graphic Material
Series II. Book Collection
Series III. Video Recordings and Motion Picture Film
Series IV. Objects

Scope and Contents

The Tony Martin Papers consist of five series, including one oversize series.

SERIES I: Documentary and Graphic Material is subdivided into five subseries documenting different aspects of Tony Martin's artistic career, as well as his corresondence with notable artists and art organizations. Material in Subseries A through C is arranged chronologically, while material in Subseries D and E is arranged alphabetically.

Subseries A: Exhibitions
Subseries B: Visual Compositons, Performance
Subseries C: Interactive Sculptures
Subseries D: Sketches, Notes and Miscellaneous
Subseries E: Correspondence

SERIES II: Book Collection is housed in the Fales Library. The books have been catalogued in Bobcat. A keyword or related name search with the name "Tony Martin" will retrieve the records for the books. See "separated materials" for a list of the books.

SERIES III: Video Recordings and Motion Picture Film is divided into two subseries:

Subseries A: Video Recordings
Subseries B: Motion Picture Film

SERIES IV: Objects contains electronic circuitry used in Martin's interactive sculptures.

OVERSIZE SERIES contains oversize documentary and graphic material. Some entries are cross-listed with entries in Series I.

Subjects

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the collection in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:

Identification of item, date (if known); The Tony Martin Papers; MSS 190; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The Tony Martin Papers were donated to Fales Library by Tony Martin in 2006. Two accretions were added to Series I, Subseries A in December of 2015 and October 2019. The accessions associated with these additions are 2015.190 and 2019.056.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Access copies for some materials are available by appointment for reading room viewing and listening only. Please contact fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.

Separated Materials

Selected printed materials have been removed and individually catalogued in the Downtown Collection. Records for these items can be retrieved through Bobcat.

Chadabe, Joel. Electric Sound: The Past and Promise of Electronic Music. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1997.

Kluver, Billy, et al., Ed. Pavilion: by Experiments in Art and Technology. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1972.

Renen, Sheldon. An Introduction to the American Underground Film. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1967.

Sandford, Mariellen R., Ed. Happenings and Other Acts. London: Routledge, 1995.

Collection processed by

YZ Chin, 2008-2009.

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-20 17:02:15 -0400.

Language: Description is in English.

Processing Information

Decisions regarding the arrangement, description, and physical interventions taken on this collection prior to 2019 have not yet been recorded. In 2019, an accretion of an exhibition catalog was rehoused in an archival folder and box, and intellectually incorporated into Series I. Subseries A.

Revisions to this Guide

March 2017: Updated by Jacqueline Rider to reflect incorporation of video preservation master and sub-master files.

October 2019: Updated by Rachel Searcy to reflect 2019 accretion

Repository

Fales Library and Special Collections