“The newest trend and the art scene are unnecessary distractions for a serious artist,” Agnes Martin stated in 1989, aged seventy-seven. She ought to have known, having seen the trends come and go, outliving and outperforming each of them. Embraced by admirers of Minimalism in New York during the '60s, she countered that her grids were Abstract Expressionist. Expressionist? What can a grid “express”? “Innocence,” she said. Now she's reached ninety in New Mexico, titling her works Little Children Playing with Love and the like. Minimalism and Expressionism have passed into history. Martin's art

It's impossible to account for the past three decades of Texas art without including Kermit Oliver in the picture. The reclusive Waco resident is known throughout the state for his haunting still lifes, landscapes, and portraits based on the Bible, classical mythology, and literature and folktales from around the globe, all retold from a contemporary point of view. He gained more widespread recognition when three of his large paintings were chosen for “Beau Monde,” Dave Hickey's SITE Santa Fe exhibition last year. But critics haven't known what to do with Oliver: They've tried to pigeonhole him