How to Love the Whole World

November 1, 2024
A loving portrait of an intense, solitary American artist who found ways to express deep feelings in her minimalist abstractions. Author Martin (no relation to the artist) may be overreaching when he claims that painter Agnes Martin (1912-2004) is as famous as Georgia O'Keeffe and Frida Kahlo, and rather than providing concrete biographical details or even acknowledging that she was diagnosed with schizophrenia, he makes oblique references to her art materials and emotional extremes (such as her early tendency to set unsatisfactory work on fire). Still, in rapturous prose, he does coherently retrace her artistic development as she learned better ways of expressing her deep love for nature and the world with an "ordinary line" and shimmering colors: "Agnes's ordered and controlled grid paintings of joy became translucent and expansive band paintings of happiness." Hampe follows along, adding straight and flowing lines over subtle washes of transparent color and focusing more on evocations of select works than on depicting the artist herself. Readers catch only brief glimpses of a stylized face, a pair of hands, and a small figure who, even in the afterword's one photo, is turned away from viewers. Readers' appreciation for the qualities and appeal of her art will be further whetted by the occasional direct quote. Emotionally rich, if so sketchy that the subject remains a remote figure. (list of works mentioned, citations for quotes and anecdotes, sources)(Picture-book biography. 7-9)

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Starred review from November 25, 2024
Martin’s sensorial lines and Hampe’s pale mixed-media illustrations quietly capture the spirit of the art of Agnes Martin (1912–2004) in this softly told exploration of her work and life. Loose third-person descriptions of Martin’s evolving creative practice (“Agnes’s ordered and controlled grid paintings of joy became translucent and expansive band paintings of happiness”) alternate with italicized first-person reflections (“Today I feel
happiness./ Today I feel gratitude./ Today I love the whole world”). Touching on Martin’s embrace of solitude and wanderlust, and emphasizing her appreciation for the natural world, text effectively weaves in quotes from the artist. Stylized visuals successfully echo their subject’s style, while layering mediums to lend pages
an appropriate emotive depth. The result exalts in Martin’s ability to express her feelings about the world with a loving minimalism. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones.
Further information concludes. Ages 4–8.

January 1, 2025
Preschool-Grade 3 Kids may never have heard of abstract expressionist painter Agnes Martin (1912-2004), but they're very familiar with her kind of work in the lines, grids, and shapes they themselves draw and with the idea that art is about feelings. This picture-book biography starts with feelings and colors. After the statement "Agnes Martin loved the whole world," we see a page drenched in pink showing "cotton candy-pink dawn" and then "eggshell-blue dusk." Martin loved the extended line (an inky double-page squiggle is a delightfully minimalist New York City skyline). The focus throughout is on Martin's art and her changing emotions (""Today I do not love the whole world""), putting her struggles with mental health in a relatable form for children. The illustrations, done with found paper, acrylic paint, pencils, and colored pencils, convey Martin's style beautifully, from showing her grid drawings in a textured, crinkly paper bag-like way to the representations of some of Martin's better-known paintings, showing the colorful bands and stripes the artist delighted in. Informative back matter concludes.

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March 1, 2025
Canadian American artist Agnes Martin (1912-2004) loved the natural world, feeling complete when a part of it: "Today I feel happiness. Today I feel gratitude. Today I love the whole world." In her early years, she experimented with found objects, including beads, wood, and other discarded materials. Her perceived failures frustrated her, and she "put many into a bonfire." Martin's travels led her to draw more and more lines, weaving them together in patterns until they tightened into grids. Pink, blue, and shimmering gold, her gridded canvases did not receive from the outside world the same love she had put into them, and she pulled back into herself, away from the criticism and into solitude. After some time, a game of hopscotch outside her window opened her perspective about line and order, sending her into a newfound love for her own voice as an artist and the world that she painted. The page layout is spacious, its spareness making this picture book less a detailed account of Martin's life and more a reflection of a restrained approach to creative work. Back matter sheds a bit more light on the artist, her influence, and her legacy. Grace McKinney Beermann

(Copyright 2025 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)