View source for Charles James Martin (artist)

{{Primary sources|date=July 2009}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = Charles James Martin
| image         = cjm-photo01.jpg
| image_size    =
| caption       = Charles James Martin, photographed by Caroline Geiger, circa 1910.
| birth_name    =
| birth_date    = {{birth date|mf=y|1886|09||}}
| birth_place   = [[Mansfield]],<br />[[England]]
| death_date    = {{death date and age|mf=y|1955|08|09|1886|09||}}
| death_place   = [[Hyannis, Massachusetts]],<br />[[United States]]
| nationality   = American
| known_for     = [[Painting]]
| training      =
| movement      =
| notable_works =
| patrons       =
| awards        =
}}
'''Charles James Martin''' (September 1886&nbsp;– August 9, 1955) was an [[American modernism|American modernist]] artist and arts instructor. He worked in a variety of media including etching, lithography, water color, monotype, linocut, woodcut, oil, photography, mezzotint and silversmithing.
==Biography==
Born in [[Mansfield, England]], in 1886, Martin emigrated to the US as a boy and lived out the remainder of his life as an American. He studied art under [[Arthur Wesley Dow]] at Dow's [[Ipswich, Massachusetts|Ipswich]] Summer School of Art as well as at [[Columbia University Teachers College]], where he became an instructor himself in 1914.
<blockquote>Mr. Martin's work is after the new modernist school, the art that seeks essence rather than form, interpretation rather than faithful representation. The results of this first year's training in a type of work so entirely new to Teachers College students are highly gratifying to Professor Dow. According to Mr. Martin, modernist painting must be preceded by ordinary symmetrical drawing by the student. In other words, rules must be learned before they can be departed from. The exhibit showed, therefore, not only paintings of this new character, but also drawings of the old style&nbsp;– symmetrical, detailed, precise. One of the color experiments of particular interest in this interpretative painting is that of "optical mixtures," a process by which the mixing of colors to produce another color, is left to the eye, rather than mixed on the palette; green foliage, for example, may be represented by intermingling splotches of blue and yellow. The exhibit showed these modernist studies done in all mediums&nbsp;– oil, chalk, tempora, water color.<ref>[[Teachers College Record]] Volume 16 Number 4, 1915, p. 388</ref></blockquote>
Martin attained professorship at Teachers College in 1923<ref>''[[Teachers College Record]]'' Volume 24 Number 4, 1923, pp. 374–392</ref> and continued his work there into the 1940s. [[Georgia O'Keeffe]] attended Martin's class at Teachers college in 1914–15, where she met [[Anita Pollitzer]]. O'Keeffe considered Martin's instruction significant enough that she continued sending examples of her work for his critique in the period after she attended his class.<ref>''"Living On Paper:" Georgia O'Keeffe and the Culture of Drawing and Watercolor in the Stieglitz Circle'' [http://www.lib.umd.edu/drum/bitstream/1903/3346/1/umi-umd-2734.pdf]{{Dead link|date=July 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Ann Prentice Wagner, Dissertation, 2005, pp. 160–161</ref> Martin even had a fan in [[Winston Churchill]], as a friend of his writes in a letter c. 1930s:
<blockquote>Wednesday afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Winston Churchill and two sons came in for tea; both Mr. and Mrs. C. are crazy about sketching and water colors. Mr. C. went back to [Charles'] picture three times and stood for ages admiring and commenting upon it&nbsp;– thought the light and shadows perfect and loved the simplicity of the theme. I <u>always</u> feel so proud to say "our friend Prof. Martin!"<ref>Personal letter to Martin's family, circa 1920s, with illegible signature</ref></blockquote>
In the 1910s, Martin also studied photography with [[Clarence H. White]] at Teachers College, and became an instructor at White's School of Photography in 1918.<ref>''Photos from the Clarence H. White School'', online article by Verna Posever Curtis for the Library of Congress [https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0112/white.html]</ref> Also in 1918, Martin won first prize in a photography contest held by Columbia University in which Dow and White were judges.<ref>''Teachers College Record'' Volume 19 Number 2, 1918, pp. 215–215</ref> During this time period, he also served on the executive committee of the Pictorial Photographers of America [http://www.ppa-photoclub.org/].
Martin spent many summers in the 1920s–50s living and teaching plein air art classes in [[Provincetown, Mass]],<ref>''Teachers College Record'' Volume 26 Number 10, 1925, pp. 881–891</ref> and also in [[Mexico]].<ref>"New Trend In Art Found In Mexico", ''The New York Times'', Dec. 6, 1936</ref> Martin continued working as an art instructor, often on a freelance basis, for the remainder of his life. He died on August 9, 1955, in [[Hyannis, Massachusetts]], after a short illness. He is buried at [[North Burial Ground]], [[Providence, Rhode Island]].<ref>"Deaths", ''The New York Times'', Aug. 11, 1955</ref>
==Personal life==
[[File:cjm-photo03.jpg|left|thumb|150px|Charles J. Martin with wife Esther and son James, circa late 1920s]]
At Teachers College, Martin met a fellow art student named Esther L. Upton, whom he eventually married. Upton was the niece of Clifford B. Upton and Siegried M. Upton, both prominent instructors at Teachers College and also the affiliated [[Horace Mann School]]. (Mrs. Upton was also an accomplished photographer who studied with Clarence H. White.) Charles and Esther lived for a brief time in Paris, France in 1913–14. In 1918 they gave birth to their only child, James Upton "Kimo" Martin (born May 16, 1918, died Jan 20, 2007) [https://www.myspace.com/kimomartin]. Charles and Esther eventually separated, and spent most of the 1920s onward living far apart from each other. James spent time living with both of his parents. He grew up to become an accomplished artist and furniture designer in his own right.
==Selected exhibitions and reviews==
* American Water Color Society Exhibition, National Arts Club, 1916
<blockquote>There are two "Interiors" in the exhibition which provide contrast and text. One shall be nameless... The other is a picture by Charles J. Martin in the alcove. Mr. Martin has approached his subject first of all in the spirit of an artist with analyses to make. He has taken the haphazard of nature and reduced it to orderly plan. Or to speak more truly, he has taken the fragment of nature that presented itself to him at some one moment and recreated it until by virtue of art it became a whole, an organism, in which every part is essential to the others. He has seen his room as a pattern in which the black stove with its aggressive pipe is balanced by a black chair or something, and beautiful bright threads of color run in and out of large neutral patches of violet and dull yellow. A rug designer would see how handsome it is. But the artist in this instance has had also a sense of humor and a conscience, and since his room is a human abode he has analyzed its character and made of his work a witty and penetrating comment. That is what makes it so difficult to forgive. The makers of patterns are not all so successful as Mr. Martin.<ref>"Water Color Exhibition", ''The New York Times'', Feb 5, 1916</ref></blockquote>
* Columbia Teachers College, 1916
<blockquote>Mr. Martin's method makes water color a thing to reckon with at a distance, a medium capable of decorative effect. He pays tribute to the peculiar character of the medium, its sparkling idiosyncrasy, by his use of the white outline, which detaches the masses of color from one another, keeping them in one plane as effectively as the black bounding line in favor with one school of modern painters; and which has the advantage of giving the white ground of the paper a chance to play its enlivening part in the general scheme.<ref>"Teachers College Students Exhibit Their Work", ''The New York Times'', May 18, 1916</ref></blockquote>
* Philadelphia Water Color Exhibition, 1916<ref>From an exhibition label on the back of his painting "An Interior"</ref>
* MacDowell Club Sketch Exhibition, 1917<ref>"Art Exhibitions of the Closing Season", ''The New York Times'', May 13, 1917</ref>
* Pictorial Photographers of America Exhibition, Detroit Museum of Art, January 4–28, 1918 [http://www.dalnet.lib.mi.us/greenstone/dia/dmaExhibitions/1918-1.pdf]{{dead link|date=August 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* Painter-Gravers Of America Exhibition, 1919<ref>"Hogarth and Other English Painters", ''The New York Times'', March 16, 1919</ref>
* Provincetown Art Association Exhibition, 1927<ref>"Modern Artists Show Work at
Provincetown", ''The New York Times'', July 10, 1927</ref>
[[File:cjm-photo02.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Charles J. Martin with water colors, circa 1930s]]
* Morton Galleries, New York City, 1929<ref>"A Round Of Galleries", ''The New York Times'', March 10, 1929</ref>
* International Water Color Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago, May 2&nbsp;– June 2, 1929 [https://web.archive.org/web/20120406093212/http://www.artic.edu/aic/libraries/pubs/1929/AIC1929IntWtrclr9thAn_comb.pdf]
* Provincetown Art Association Exhibition, 1931<ref>Edward Alden Jewell, "Three-Reel Travelogue", ''The New York Times'', July 12, 1931</ref>
* Morton Galleries, New York City, 1931
<blockquote>Charles J. Martin, well known for his freedom from academic restraint in his method of teaching design, achieves an equally unhampered expression in his creative work. "The Factory" is a boldly conceived design, especially rich in its use of resonant blacks. In contrast to the rugged construction of this work is the fluent character of the "Sand Pit," where the harmonic tour de force of combining warm and cold tonalities is skillfully accomplished.<ref>"New Morton Gallery Opens", ''The New York Times'', Oct. 13, 1931.</ref></blockquote>
* Morton Galleries, New York City, 1932.<ref>"Some Interesting Water-Colors", ''The New York Times'', Jan. 20, 1932</ref>
<blockquote>Possibly the most striking paper in the show is the landscape by Charles Martin. Mr. Martin, a professor of painting at Columbia, has an original and powerful technique. He achieves architectonic pattern without any important loss in realism.<ref>"The Week In New York: A Roster Of New Exhibitions", ''The New York Times'', Oct 23, 1932</ref></blockquote>
* Morton Galleries, New York City, 1933<ref>Edward Alden Jewell, "Superb Islamic Painting", ''The New York Times'', Oct 15, 1933</ref>
* Morton Galleries, New York City, 1934<ref>Howard DeVree, "Notes On Some Current Exhibitions", ''The New York Times'', Oct 7, 1934</ref>
* Delphic Studios, New York City, 1934<ref>"20 Art Exhibitions To Open This Week", ''The New York Times'', Dec. 17, 1934</ref>
* Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, 1935 "Exhibition of Water Color Paintings, Pastels and Drawings by American and European Artists, Feb 1-28, 1935
* Morton Galleries, New York City, 1936<ref>Howard DeVree, "A Round Of Galleries", ''The New York Times'', March 22, 1936</ref>
* Morton Galleries, New York City, 1937<ref>Ruth Green Harris, "Landscape vs. Portrait", ''The New York Times'', June 13, 1937</ref>
* Morton Galleries, New York City, 1938<ref>Howard DeVree, "Flames In The Embers", ''The New York Times'', July 3, 1938</ref>
* [[Brooklyn Museum Art School]], 1949<ref>"Variety Of Shows Due At Art Salons", ''The New York Times'', Feb. 21, 1949</ref>
==Selected teaching CV==
* Columbia University Teachers College (1914–1940s)
* Clarence H. White School of Photography (1918–1920s)
* Art Students' League (early 1920s)<ref>''Teachers College Record'' Volume
22 Number 5, 1921, p. 433</ref>
* Textile Guild of the Keramic Society of Greater New York (early 1920s)<ref>''Teachers College Record'' Volume 22 Number 5, 1921, p. 433</ref>
* New York High School (1927 seminars for art instructors)<ref name="Teachers College Record' 1927, pp. 736–737">''Teachers College Record'' Volume 28 Number 7, 1927, pp. 736–737</ref>
* [[Evander Childs High School]] (1927 seminars for art instructors)<ref name="Teachers College Record' 1927, pp. 736–737"/>
* [[Skidmore College]] (1928)<ref>''Teachers College Record'' Volume 29 Number 7, 1928,
pp. 628–647</ref>
* [[University of Chicago]] (1929)<ref>''Teachers College Record'' Volume 31 Number 2,
1929, pp. 175–175</ref>
* Eastern Arts Convention, Philadelphia (1940)<ref>''Teachers College Record'' Volume
41 Number 99, 1940, p. 690</ref>
* War Veteran's Art Center, [[Museum of Modern Art]] (1940s)<ref>Martin, Charles J. (1949).
<u>How To Make Modern Jewelry</u>, New York : Museum of Modern Art : distributed by
Simon and Schuster.</ref>
==Selected publications==
* ''Notes On Permanent Painting'', a 1924 article for ''Teachers College Record''.<ref>''Teachers College Record'' Volume 25 Number 1, 1924, pp. 51–60</ref>
* ''Creative Design In Painting'', a 12-minute 16&nbsp;mm educational film, 1936. "A demonstration of the organization of lines and areas within a rectangle. The illustration of these design principles is then carried over into the painting of a landscape in watercolor."<ref>[https://archive.org/details/51educationalfilmg00wilsrich ''Educational Film Guide'' (1951), New York, H. W. Wilson Co]</ref>
* <u>How To Make Modern Jewelry</u>[https://books.google.com/books?id=OVhQAAAAMAAJ], New York : Museum of Modern Art : distributed by Simon and Schuster, 1949.
==Gallery of selected art works==
<gallery>
Image:cjm-watercolor01.jpg|Water Color: "An Interior," 1916
Image:cjm-watercolor02.jpg|Water Color: Canal scene, c. 1913
Image:cjm-watercolor03.jpg|Water Color: Landscape, c. 1930s
Image:cjm-watercolor04.jpg|Water Color: Factory, c. 1930s
Image:cjm-watercolor05.jpg|Water Color: Buildings with Tank, c. 1930s
Image:cjm-oil01.jpg|Oil Painting: Horse Fountain, c. 1913
Image:cjm-oil02.jpg|Oil Painting: Factory, c. 1913
Image:cjm-oil03.jpg|Oil Painting: Nude, c. 1913
Image:cjm-monotype01.jpg|Monotype: Baseball Game, c. 1918
Image:cjm-monotype02.jpg|Monotype: Houses, 1918
Image:cjm-monotype03.jpg|Monotype: Plaza Scene, c. 1918
Image:cjm-etching01.jpg|Etching: Houses & Trees, c. late 1910s
Image:cjm-etching02.jpg|Etching: Tanks, c. late 1910s
Image:cjm-etching03.jpg|Etching: Esther L. Martin, c. late 1910s
Image:cjm-lithograph01.jpg|Lithograph: Highland Light, North Truro, MA, c. late 1920s
Image:cjm-lithograph02.jpg|Lithograph: Octagon House, c. late 1920s
Image:cjm-lithograph03.jpg|Lithograph: Storm Landscape, c. late 1920s
Image:cjm-linotype.jpg|Linocut: Canal Scene, 1914
Image:cjm-woodcut01.jpg|Color Woodcut: Pelicans, 1913
Image:cjm-woodcut02.jpg|Woodcut: Trees & Houses, c. 1920
Image:cjm-woodcut03.jpg|Woodcut: Tea Service, 1920
Image:cjm-photo04.jpg|Photograph: James U. Martin with Nanny, 1921
Image:cjm-photo05.jpg|Photograph: Esther L. Martin holding James U. Martin, c. 1919
Image:cjm-photo06.jpg|Photograph: Columbia University Scene, 1918
Image:cjm-photo07.jpg|Photograph: Dockside Buildings with James U. Martin, c. early 1920s
</gallery>
==Notes==
<references />
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Charles James}}
[[Category:1886 births]]
[[Category:1955 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American educators]]
[[Category:American printmakers]]
[[Category:American modern artists]]
[[Category:Burials at North Burying Ground (Providence)]]
[[Category:People from Mansfield]]
[[Category:Columbia University faculty]]
[[Category:Teachers College, Columbia University faculty]]
[[Category:Teachers College, Columbia University alumni]]
[[Category:English emigrants to the United States]]