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Lot Essay
In 1948, renowned modern art critic Clement Greenberg declared, “If it is not beyond doubt that [John] Marin is the greatest living American painter, he certainly has to be taken into account when we ask who is” (Art and Culture: Critical Essays, Boston, 1961, p. 181). That February, Look magazine surveyed 68 curators, critics and museum directors to select the ten best painters in America; John Marin was again declared “Artist No. 1.” Painted during this decade of critical acclaim, My-Hell Raising Sea demonstrates the exquisite balance between elements of abstraction and realism that earned Marin distinction as one of the most venerated American artists of the twentieth century and influenced the next generation of Abstract Expressionists.
Beginning in the summer of 1914, Marin escaped the bustle of New York City every summer to spend the warmer months painting the rocky shoreline of Maine. While his primary output was in the medium of watercolor, in the late 1920s the artist began to explore the possibilities of capturing the tumultuous Atlantic Ocean in oil paint. Through the next decade, as Klaus Kertess writes, “Marin would unite the medium of oil with the subject of the ocean to create deeply moving medleys of paint. The rhythmically charged flatness and openness, the willed surrender to paint’s liquidity, and the entrancement with the workings of nature so crucial to Marin become totally compatible and congruent with the movements of the ocean. Its incalculable repertoire of flux, flow, and reflectiveness moving into and out of flatness would bring Marin into full mastery of his newly favored medium…In oil, Marin immersed himself not in its ambiances but in the nature of the ocean itself” (K. Kertess, Marin in Oil, exh. cat., Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, 1987, p. 46).
In My-Hell Raising Sea, as suggested by the title, Marin particularly emphasizes the unpredictability and unruliness of the ocean’s nature. Kertess explains, “Marin’s Maine is not a hospitable bather’s resort… The Maine coast invited drama more than dalliance” (K. Kertess, ibid, p. 47) Indeed, in the present work from 1941, Marin utilizes forceful, expressive brushwork to create the impression of set after set of strong waves crashing along the dark rocks of the shoreline. Areas of impasto contrast with sgraffito lines where the artist has seemed to inscribe into the paint surface with the pointed end of his brush. With this amalgam of thick and thin layers of dark and light hues, Marin recreates in his unique style the energy and effervescence of the sea. Yet, while the waves and coast are irregular and threatening, the horizon line and sky in My-Hell Raising Sea appear distinctly even and calm. Perhaps this juxtaposition reflects the positive restorative energy that Marin derived from the Maine coast, even during its most forceful moments. As he once wrote to his dealer Alfred Stieglitz during a summer in Maine, “There’s nothing like ‘Old Mother Earth’ to get a fellow so that he can ‘Raise Hell’ once again” (J. Marin, letter to Alfred Stieglitz, August 22, 1920).
Beginning in the summer of 1914, Marin escaped the bustle of New York City every summer to spend the warmer months painting the rocky shoreline of Maine. While his primary output was in the medium of watercolor, in the late 1920s the artist began to explore the possibilities of capturing the tumultuous Atlantic Ocean in oil paint. Through the next decade, as Klaus Kertess writes, “Marin would unite the medium of oil with the subject of the ocean to create deeply moving medleys of paint. The rhythmically charged flatness and openness, the willed surrender to paint’s liquidity, and the entrancement with the workings of nature so crucial to Marin become totally compatible and congruent with the movements of the ocean. Its incalculable repertoire of flux, flow, and reflectiveness moving into and out of flatness would bring Marin into full mastery of his newly favored medium…In oil, Marin immersed himself not in its ambiances but in the nature of the ocean itself” (K. Kertess, Marin in Oil, exh. cat., Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, 1987, p. 46).
In My-Hell Raising Sea, as suggested by the title, Marin particularly emphasizes the unpredictability and unruliness of the ocean’s nature. Kertess explains, “Marin’s Maine is not a hospitable bather’s resort… The Maine coast invited drama more than dalliance” (K. Kertess, ibid, p. 47) Indeed, in the present work from 1941, Marin utilizes forceful, expressive brushwork to create the impression of set after set of strong waves crashing along the dark rocks of the shoreline. Areas of impasto contrast with sgraffito lines where the artist has seemed to inscribe into the paint surface with the pointed end of his brush. With this amalgam of thick and thin layers of dark and light hues, Marin recreates in his unique style the energy and effervescence of the sea. Yet, while the waves and coast are irregular and threatening, the horizon line and sky in My-Hell Raising Sea appear distinctly even and calm. Perhaps this juxtaposition reflects the positive restorative energy that Marin derived from the Maine coast, even during its most forceful moments. As he once wrote to his dealer Alfred Stieglitz during a summer in Maine, “There’s nothing like ‘Old Mother Earth’ to get a fellow so that he can ‘Raise Hell’ once again” (J. Marin, letter to Alfred Stieglitz, August 22, 1920).