What is Art for?
What art is for is as various as the people who make art. When I taught the art history survey at SFAI, I summed art’s purposes up into five categories—with the comment that every artist is usually concerned with several. The first of the categories was self-expression, and I used Vincent Van Gogh and Edvard Munch as my primary examples—noting that, of course, every artist is self-expressive because the very nature of making includes the self that makes (as Van Gogh put it, “Like every work of art, a self-portrait”).
Fred's Journey
The role of China in my life began when I was a little boy and every Sunday evening for years we went to “The Chinaman’s” (we called it) for a Chinese dinner. I was adventurous and once ordered Seaweed Soup in addition to the Chowmein we always had.
Many years passed. I climbed the ladder of career both as an artist with many exhibitions (all with the Chinese background described above but mostly invisible in the work except for the often large “blank” spaces, and sometimes the wiggly lines from which forms might appear), and as an administrator, ultimately becoming Vice President for Academic Affairs at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), where unknown to all but me, the readings I had made so long before in Lao Tze and Confucius were of help in my service to a community of artists and students just as they had been a guide for centuries to the people of China.
Gallery
Snapshots of Fred’s art and life through the decades.
Meet Fred Martin
Fred Martin (June 13, 1927 – October 10, 2022) was an American artist, writer, and arts administrator deeply influential in the San Francisco Bay Area art scene. Born in San Francisco, he pursued his B.A. and M.A. at the University of California, Berkeley and further honed his artistic skills at the California School of Fine Arts. He had the privilege of studying under notable figures such as David Park, Mark Rothko, and Clyfford Still. For many years he was the head of the San Francisco Art Institute. Martin's contributions have left a widespread influence on the contemporary art community, reflecting his commitment to creativity and education.
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