It is not allowed to forget such a great watercolor painter

John Marin

1870-1953, American

John Marin, who was about the first wave of modernist painters in the United States, once influenced an era, but his talent is the same as that of watercolors, and the color and light are overshadowed by time.

Born in New Jersey in 1870, he began as an architect and later decided to devote himself to painting. He traveled in Europe for 6 years and was inspired by Cézanne and Matisse, where abstract brushstrokes and realistic landscapes blend perfectly and poetically in his watercolours.

"Painting is like dancing madly", the mountains and seas, the sky and the earth in his paintings are full of life and power, transparent and translucent colors are piled up and swayed rhythmically like playing music, and the brushstrokes are extremely free and flexible.

Unfortunately, he is rarely seen in the art world today. Some people have analyzed that this is probably related to the form of creation of watercolor painting, which is so fleeting and fragile compared to mediums such as oil painting, and it is more difficult to preserve and exhibit.

But perhaps because of the instability of watercolor, it will change with the passage of time, revealing the traces of time, which is another poetic thing in itself.

Currently, John Marin's works are in the collection of MoMA, Tate and other art museums.