Pierced Relief

Mary Martin used circular forms to pierce through the layers of a series of abstract reliefs that she made in 1959-60. [1] In Pierced Relief (1959), the extent to which each layer is exposed alters as you move around it, creating a dynamic relationship with the different surfaces of the relief.

Martin had developed a theory of minimal drawing in the 1950s, influenced in part by the artist Paul Klee. She highlights the significance of minimal drawing for the Pierced Relief series in a statement published in the journal Studio International, with an image of Pierced Relief (1959):

‘The first constructed reliefs I made were based on the moving format of Cubism combined with a system of positive and negative spaces (1951-4). The positive-negative line of Paul Klee helped me to break out of this […] I was developing a theory of minimal drawing which culminated in the arrangement of the walls in No.9 ‘This is Tomorrow’ Whitechapel 1956. The series of Pierced Reliefs were also based on minimal drawing.’ [2]

Michael Morris purchased Pierced Relief (1959) from Mary Martin in 1960, after seeing it in the exhibition Essays in Movement: Reliefs by Mary Martin, Mobiles by Kenneth Martin at the ICA in London. Morris also acquired a sketch by Mary Martin which shows how Pierced Relief was informed by Klee’s use of a single line to create ‘positive-negative’ spaces. [3]

Lisa Newby, January 2021

[1] For an overview of Mary Martin’s work and the significance of the Pierced Relief series, see Alastair Grieve, Constructed Abstract Art in England: A Neglected Avant-Garde (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2005), pp.151-166.

[2] ‘Statement by Mary Martin, December 1967’, published in Alan Bowness ‘The Constructive Art of Mary Martin’, Studio International, 175, No. 898 (March 1968), p.121.

[3] Grieve, 2005, p.267. This sketch is in the Sainsbury Centre archive, MO160.