Agnes Martin. Homage to Greece. image via christies.com

What a pleasant surprise as I knocked around in the Modern and Contemporary wing of the Portland Art Museum yesterday before the panel discussion, not one but two Agnes Martins and a Joan Mitchell, all three on loan from private collections. Martin’s “Homage to Greece” stopped me in my tracks…it’s small, it’s so physical with its tiled canvas and horizon of nails. I think it is having a conversation with Robert Irwin’s disk about the infinities that horizons suggest (and other secret things) and the right-here of the art object (and the nail) like a pin in a map.

It’s great that the museum is letting people know what’s new on the walls through their Facebook page. So, the following note (which will help you locate these things) from PAM on FB:

Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art, 1st Floor, Mary Beth & Roger Burpee Gallery:

• Joan Mitchell, Mont St. Hilaire, 1956, Oil on canvas, Private Collection

Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art, 2nd Floor, John Kemp Family Gallery:

• Agnes Martin, Homage to Greece, 1959, Oil, nails and collage on panel, Private Collection