John (Jack) Martin
John (Jack) Martin (1904-1965), RCA, OSA, CPE. Described by William Colgate as “a born etcher,” John (Jack) Martin (1904-1965) grew up in Nuneaton in England, the son of Harry D. Martin, a noted architect and designer (1127). As his mother was also a designer, John was brought up in a particularly creative household, studying art before he learned to write. He continued his studies formally at King Edward VI School under Dr. E.A. Needham. Martin was influenced in his early work by Henry Tonks, Arnesby Brown, Winnifred Ball, the Plein Air School, the English landscape school, and of course his father, who Colin S. Macdonald argues was his greatest artistic influence.
John Martin. Credit: McCanse Art
In 1924, at 20 years old, Martin came to Canada with a well-rounded arts education, developed not only during his studies at King Edward VI but also throughout his travels in Europe. By 1926 Martin was designing for the textile firm H.P. Ritchie in Toronto. He is credited with introducing the screen process and stencil methods to Canadian textiles. While working for a number of textile firms and printers, Martin continued his art, and soon became known for his engravings, especially dry points.
After much encouragement from Arthur Lismer, Martin began to enter his work in various exhibitions, first submitting in 1931. Soon after, Martin saw his artistic merit was gaining recognition, and it was around this time that he became increasingly involved with the Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers; he began exhibiting with the Society in 1934, and in 1936 he won the Society’s Blue Ribbon and Gold Seal. Two years later Martin was elected to become an official member of the Society. Alongside his engraving, Martin also produced many paintings and exhibited this work with the Ontario Society of Artists, of which he became a member in 1940. Martin’s accomplishments were mounting at this point, and in 1943 he won the G.A. Reid Award for his design of a plaque, the same year that his father won the Society’s Presentation Print award for his etching Collective Farm (Art Gallery of Hamilton 18).Two years later, John won another G.A. Reid award for his print All’s Well. Among Martin’s other activities and interests at the time, he also taught skiing for the Canadian army at Camp Borden during World War II and illustrated two manuals on the sport.
1945 signified a significant career-shift for Martin; he became Director of Design at the Ontario College of Art, where he taught textile design, drawing, composition, painting, and etching. Most notably, Martin is credited with initiating the design department at the College. Martin was recognized as an important artist and teacher during his term, and he was often invited to speak at various arts centres across Ontario.
Among Martin’s students at the college was young Michael Snow, and it was through Martin’s encouragement that Snow became increasingly interested in painting and submitted his first works of this type to be exhibited with the Art Gallery of Ontario. Martin also encouraged Snow to submit to the Canadian Art magazine, where his work was also accepted and printed; in his introduction in James King’s book on Snow’s beginnings, Snow describes having long conversations with Martin on painting, and it is clear that Martin’s role in Snow’s early development as a painter was pivotal.
In 1953, Martin resigned from his position at the college, but he nonetheless continued teaching; he served as an instructor at Ridley College at the St. Catharine’s Art Association and Lakehead Area Arts Association, and he also conducted winter classes in Stratford, Galt, Tillsonburg, and Toronto. In 1956, Martin was appointed Curator of the St. Catharine’s Public Library Art Gallery. Four years later he was elected as a Life Fellow of the International Institute of Arts and Letters for his contribution to arts education. In 1961 he received a Canada Council Grant to study and travel in Europe. Upon his return to Canada, he researched and illustrated A Guide To Waterloo County for Waterloo Trust and Savings Company and Paths Of History In Perth And Huron, the latter written by Anthony L. Kearsley in 1963 for British Mortgage and Trust Company. Martin later settled in Ayr, Ontario and from here he often travelled to lectures, exhibitions, and classes in neighbouring towns and cities.
Writing of Martin’s work, Colgate describes his touch of sensitivity and imaginative draftsmanship reflecting what Colgate calls “an inborn love of people [and] humour” (1127). He describes the confidence one senses in Martin’s execution; as Colgate notes, Martin was not one for cool deliberation, and in his compositions one can feel the “white heat” of the needle, being spirited and passionate and yet “magically right and expressively complete” (1127). Drawing parallels between Martin and Frederick S. Haines, Colgate writes of Martin’s “love of village and countryside” faithfully rendered in his plates. “In pieces which show these qualities at their best,” Colgate writes, “Martin displays the ease and simplicity and directness in drawing derived from ripe knowledge and practised skill” (1127).
Martin died in a car accident after being hit by a drunk driver in Ayr on November 6, 1965, less than a week before he was to be made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy (RCA). Reviewing his work in the London Free Press, Lenore Crawford wrote, “The loss to Canadian art through the death last November of John Martin is evident in the works on display…Martin was a fine artist and a valuable teacher. He was an experimenter, who explored thoroughly any highway or byway he elected to try and so his paintings, watercolours or mixed media works are the products of good technique and deliberation concerning style” (qtd. in Macdonald 1128).
Written by Mina Ivosev.
Sources:
MacDonald, Colin S. A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Vol. 4. Ottawa: Canadian Paperbacks Publishing, 1989. Pgs. 1127-8.
Art Gallery of Hamilton. The Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers in Retrospect. Hamilton: Art Gallery of Hamilton, 1981.
Colgate, William. Canadian Art: Its Origin & Development. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1943. Pg. 212.
John Martin Fonds. www.gallery.ca/library/ngc142.htm.
King, James. Early Snow: Michael Snow 1947-1962. Vancouver/Berkeley: Figure 1 and the Art Gallery of Hamilton, 2020. Pg. 1.
“John Martin (Canadian Artist).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation.