Transparency 1-4

Artist Shantell Martin (b. 1980)

Date2020

MediumFour ink on canvas drawings

Dimensions48 × 72 × 1 1/2 in. (121.9 × 182.9 × 3.8 cm) [3 panels]
30 × 59 × 1 1/2 in. (76.2 × 149.9 × 3.8 cm) [1 panel]

ClassificationsDrawing

Credit LineMembers Purchase Fund

Object number2021.4

DescriptionAcquired as part of the 2020/20+Women@NBMAA initiative.

On the occasion of her exhibition at the New Britain Museum of American Art in 2020, Martin created a monumental 16 x 40 foot mural, which reflects her response to both the space and time in which it was made. Created over the course of several hours in a spontaneous and stream-of-conscious flow, the imagery was not pre-planned but unfolded over the wall and canvases in real time, and comprises an array of figurative abstract, and landscape elements. Phrases and words such as a TRANSPARANCY, ACCOUNTABILITY, and SELF-KNOWLEDGE are interspersed throughout the composition, bringing to mind current societal issues related to race, gender, class, and our fundamental humanity.

Regarding her process, Martin describes that, "with all my drawings, they typically start with an initial line, almost like a skeleton. I call this line the DNA of the drawing. Once you have the DNA in place, it becomes about the negative space, the pockets that are left. These spaces give me clues about what goes in them. The clues are the forms of the different types of lines in various positions on the surface, and the things go in them are a mixture of faces, landscapes, words, stick figures, and recurring characters."

In recent years, Martin has begun incorporating canvases into her large-scale murals, as aspects that live on beyond the wall drawing. "Transparency" features four separate canvases.

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