WHERE ARE YOU, AGNES?

The artist Agnes Martin’s childhood and its influences are imaginatively portrayed in this picture book from Canada.

While the author’s note at the end of the book makes clear that the narrative is influenced, but not constrained, by events in Martin’s life, the story does successfully establish a tone that gets at the sensitivity of the famed abstract artist. The language is simple and evocative, and its repetition of phrases grounds its key concept—that beauty exists in the mind—which could have otherwise become too vague for the audience. Agnes is shown as a child growing up in the prairie of Saskatchewan and being introduced to its beauty by her beloved grandfather. Her family’s move to the city challenges Agnes’ need for visual beauty, but again, her grandfather helps her to see the beauty inside. As subtly effective as the narrative is, the illustrations are sublime. Working in the delicacy of watercolor and colored pencil and using negative space prominently, Celej inserts judicious bits of cut collage, the sharply defined edges of which visually heighten the softness of the other media. The result is art that is both soft, emanating visual possibility, and ordered—much like the minimalist work of Martin herself. A palette that modulates from the grays of the city back to the soft colors of the prairie acts as a visual cue to Agnes’ internal artistic flowering. All people shown are illustrated as White.

(This book releases first as a digital edition, with print release currently scheduled for Aug. 4, 2020.)

A rare treat for sensitive and artistic readers.