Ronald C. Martin, Jr.
Born in Philadelphia in 1961, Ronald Charles Martin, Jr. developed an unusual fascination for drawing and painting. Encouraged by his grandmother, the poet Margaret Higgins, to constantly record his experience visually in drawings and paintings, he embarked on a lifelong investigation of artistic visual expression at the age of four.
After exploring the mediums of drawing, painting, printmaking and fine art photography, Martin focused his study on painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. After completing extensive studies in aesthetic philosophy and objective method at The Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania, he completed the “Connoisseurship in Contemporary Art” program at Christie’s International, New York in 1999 under Richard Francis, Vice President and Senior Specialist in 20th century and contemporary art. His work draws on ancient Florentine and Venetian traditions synthesized with contemporary modernism and a meticulous devotion to picture design and aesthetic sensation.
Martin consistently invests his pictures with the pathos and power of Old Master painting, while retaining an explicitly contemporary sensibility. He stands at the end of a tradition looking back; but his approach is always innovative rather than classical. He revitalizes and renews rather than imitates.
After exploring the mediums of drawing, painting, printmaking and fine art photography, Martin focused his study on painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. After completing extensive studies in aesthetic philosophy and objective method at The Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania, he completed the “Connoisseurship in Contemporary Art” program at Christie’s International, New York in 1999 under Richard Francis, Vice President and Senior Specialist in 20th century and contemporary art. His work draws on ancient Florentine and Venetian traditions synthesized with contemporary modernism and a meticulous devotion to picture design and aesthetic sensation.
Martin consistently invests his pictures with the pathos and power of Old Master painting, while retaining an explicitly contemporary sensibility. He stands at the end of a tradition looking back; but his approach is always innovative rather than classical. He revitalizes and renews rather than imitates.
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