JOHN MARIN (1870-1953)
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Biography • John Marin (1870-1953)
John Marin was an important early American modernist, widely regarded as the best American watercolorist since Winslow Homer. His paintings are notable for their expression of dynamic forces in collision, whether the forces are man-made Manhattan skyscrapers or natural rocks and waves.
Marin was born in 1870 in Rutherford, New Jersey, and received early training as an architect before deciding to pursue a career in art. Having worked for several years as an architect, in 1899 Marin enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he studied for two years under Thomas Anshutz. Subsequently, Marin spent another two years studying under Frank DuMond at the Art Students League in New York City.
In 1905, Marin sailed to Europe, where he spent most of the next six years working in Paris and touring extensively in Italy, Belgium, Holland and Austria. His paintings of this period show the predominant influence of Japanese painting and of James A. M. Whistler, especially in their emphasis on soft forms, their reserved tonality, and an economy of brushwork resembling calligraphy. In 1909, Marin had his first New York City show at Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery, 291, the most progressive gallery of its time in the United States. Stieglitz thought well of Marin’s work, and did much to promote him throughout his career.
In 1911, Marin returned to the United States, dividing the next twenty years between New York City, Vermont and the coast of Maine, of which he painted with vigor and an increasing taste for experimentation. This period marks the beginning of Marin’s modernism, which is most apparent in his portrayal of Manhattan skyscrapers painted in the cubist or futurist manner. Marin’s paintings of the coast of Maine share with his cityscapes such modernist techniques as sight lines, contrasting weights and rapid brushwork in order to represent the flux and collision of natural elements, such as waves and rocks. Marin also painted in New Mexico in 1929 and 1930, creating paintings notable for their desert ambiance.
Having begun his formal career late in life, at age 40 Marin began to achieve the success that eluded many of his contemporaries among the first generation of American modernists. With Alfred Stieglitz as his faithful dealer, Marin’s work sold well and at high prices from the 1920’s on. He was honored with a retrospective exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in 1936, and remained active until his death at age 83 at his home in Cape Split, Maine.