About

Martin Potts (1952 – 2014) was a British painter who lived and worked for most of his life in New York, USA.

Potts’ decided early in life not to follow in the footsteps of his father, a farmer and instead applied to study Art at the Leeds College of Art, (known then as Jacob Kramer College), which was regarded in the 1960s as “… the most influential art school in Europe since the Bauhaus” with Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Harry Thubron numbered amongst its alumni. He arrived in Leeds in 1969 to embark on his life as a painter. On completion of his Foundation year in 1971, he gained a place at Bath Academy of Art, where he met his lifetime friend, the artist, Angela Eames. One of his first exhibitions was in 1973 at the Pall Mall Gallery, London, where his work was selected for the Stowells Trophy. He went on to study at the Slade School of Art between 1974 and 1976, together with Angela Eames under the tutelage of Noel Forster, Tess Jaray and Malcolm Hughes. He was awarded a Rome Abbey Major Scholarship in 1976 and spent the next two years in Italy, painting. During this time he was strongly influenced by Italian culture, and by its landscape and light in particular. Painting in Rome confirmed his interest in colour and he began to work extensively within both sequence and series.

In 1978 Potts moved to New York where he settled and established his studio practice. It was here that he began to explore making paintings in three dimensions. Using found palettes on the streets of the city, he discovered a rigid support which was ideal as the starting point for many of his uniquely shaped works.

In New York Potts also continued to work for the British painter Richard Smith (1931 – 2016), whom he met whilst studying at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham. There he became his assistant, with whom he remained a close friend until his death. From 1980 onwards, Potts also worked as an assistant for other artist friends. He built complex stretchers and painting armatures and designed loft spaces, kitchens, gallery interiors and furniture. He worked with John Torreano, Bobbie Oliver, Matt Mullican, Crozier Fine Art, Glen Goldberg and John Wilcox amongst others. He also worked for Leeser Architecture, creators of innovative, cutting-edge architectural design solutions, building the spacey “Glass Bar” in Chelsea. He exhibited works at Fawbush Gallery, New York, Paul Klein Gallery, Chicago and Vaughan and Vaughan, Minneapolis, whilst also taking part in numerous group shows in New York.

Potts is best known for his three-dimensional paintings on wood. Three-dimensionality maintained a continual presence in his work, whether fabricated as such or alluded to within a two-dimensional painting plane. He was interested in the oscillation between flat surface and its appearance in physical space. His paintings were directly concerned with the visual depth of the painted surface and visual interruptions which might be evidenced in the physical work. He was fascinated by visual and physical space and any apparent dissolution through relativity of colour/light, painted surface activity and/or the actual fabrication of a piece. The multi-faceted references embedded in his work stems from Potts’s wide ranging interests in music, mythology, mathematics, science, literature, religion and philosophy. The writings of James Joyce and the Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti were a formative influence as were the musical compositions of Erik Satie and Olivier Messiaen.

“The disciplined activity of painting underpinned Martin the artist. There was care in each and every step taken, preliminary drawings, material acquisition and brush strokes made. There were also moments of silence and contemplation as content married with visual possibility informed his next move, his next painting. Whether raw materials found on New York streets or the contemporary industrial sheet materials of the building trade, all were employed in a straightforward and entirely appropriate manner in the manifestation of the painted image. Colour was crucial. Painting space was explored. Content was humanity.”

Angela Eames – 2014

In May 2014 Martin Potts was diagnosed with a terminal illness. His studio was closed and he returned to Germany to be with his family. He died in Münster on July 12th. As a memorial to his life, his final large scale series of works ‘The Adorations’ were put on exhibition at Flowers Gallery in London the following year.