Chris Martin: An Arrival and Eternal Return of Painting

What is it that compels us to recognize the arrival of an artist who has finally reached his, her, or their hard-won unity of late? It may be because this artist has already achieved it long ago though we’ve failed to see it. Chris Martin, who recently turned seventy, comfortably belonged to either or both categories. Those who have followed the evolution of Martin’s work since the mid-1980s would readily recognize that the breadth of his ambition and endurance never failed to be apparent, even if it wasn’t always readily seen. As the writer Raymond Foye once wrote, “Martin’s career is a testament to perseverance, which in theological terms is defined as ‘continuance in a state of grace’.”