ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Organized by the LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Eugene Martin: The Creative Act features collages, drawings, and paintings showcasing Martin’s unique brand of abstraction. Born in Washington, D.C., in 1938, Martin dedicated his life to working as a full-time artist, creating a body of work marked by distinct periods, from black-and-white ink drawings to vibrant acrylic paintings and collages. Throughout these styles, his hand is ever distinct and present. Martin’s playful collages and mixed-media compositions demonstrate his belief in creation as an intuitive act, driven less by predetermined outcomes than by the possibilities discovered through making. He resisted categorization, moving freely between styles rather than aligning himself with a single artistic movement. Ultimately, Martin’s art satisfies the impulse simply to create.
Time itself is fluid in Martin’s work, both aesthetically and materially. He described his collages as heterochronic, borrowing a term from evolutionary biology that refers to events occurring at different periods or stages of development. A painting completed in 1989 might incorporate elements from one made in 1984, while a collage assembled in 1995 could contain paper fragments dating back to the 1960s. Seeing his earlier pieces not as finished objects but as ongoing sources of possibility, Martin continually revisited and reconfigured them, allowing ideas to evolve across decades. This iterative process reflects his understanding of creativity as an ongoing cycle of invention, investigation, and discovery—one without a definitive beginning or end. Martin passionately created until his passing in 2005.
“The creative act is when you create something by pure motive—it generates a kind of energy that goes out through the universe.”
—Eugene Martin
welcome
from the executive director
Welcome to the Spartanburg Art Museum! We are so glad that you are here. Our current exhibit, Eugene Martin: The Creative Act features one of the most renowned African American artists in the south. His works are full of fantasy and fiction, while also including geometric silhouettes and biomorphic forms. Martin “described his collages as heterochronic, borrowing a term from evolutionary biology that refers to events occurring at different periods or stages of development. A painting completed in 1989 might incorporate elements from one made in 1984, while a collage assembled in 1995 could contain paper fragments dating back to the 1960s. Seeing his earlier pieces not as finished objects but as ongoing sources of possibility, Martin continually revisited and reconfigured them, allowing ideas to evolve across decades. This iterative process reflects his understanding of creativity as an ongoing cycle of invention, investigation, and discovery—one without a definitive beginning or end.” Please enjoy this incredible exhibit and we are honored to have you here!
Spartanburg Art Museum’s mission is to advance contemporary visual arts by inspiring and engaging diverse audiences through exhibitions and education. We are a FREE museum and one of only a handful of Contemporary Art museums in the South. SAM also has its origins directly tied to the history of Spartanburg. The Spartanburg Arts and Crafts Club was formed in 1907 by Margaret Law and Josephine Sibley Couper. They held an exhibition of leading artists of their time. The Girl with the Red Hair (1903) by Robert Henri, was purchased by the citizens of Spartanburg and became the first work of art in the museum’s permanent collection. In 1968, the Spartanburg County Art Association was formed by Nita Milliken and nine other community members. The Association opened a gallery, started a tradition of the Annual Sidewalk Art Show and began collecting works by local and regional artists for the permanent collection. In 1977 the Arts and Crafts Club art collection became part of the Spartanburg Art’s Council and in 1994 the Arts Partnership of Greater Spartanburg was formed and became the owner of the collections of the Arts Council. TAPS then gave ownership of the whole collection to the Spartanburg County Art Museum. In 2007 the Spartanburg County Museum of Art moved into its present location within the Chapman Cultural Center and officially changed its name to the Spartanburg Art Museum.
We would especially like to recognize and thank our board members for their support and dedication to SAM. Please enjoy our exhibit, come back and see us again, and don’t forget that SAM offers art classes ranging from ceramics to painting for both children and adults. It is wonderful to have you here and we hope to see you again soon.
Dr. Ryan Teten