Ronald Albert Martin

1943 -

The painter Ron Martin was born in London, Ontario, in 1943. He studied at H.B. Beal Secondary School in London between 1960 and 1964 and began working in a studio shared with the prominent sculptor Murray Favro in 1964. But Martin found his artistic voice under the guiding influence of compatriot Greg Curnoe. Despite those proclaiming that painting had died in the late 1960s, Martin established himself as one of the most exciting artists to emerge out of the following decade. He diverged from the Toronto abstract painting scene by recognizing the authoritarian role of the artist over the viewer, and redirecting artist agency by creating “painting that is primarily about the experience of the experiencer.” His conceptual and process-driven derivation of abstraction arguably deserves a place within the international history of abstract art.