"Before Painting Became Slave To Representation.The Artist Communicated With Their Gods And Their Spirits"The Brooklyn-born Andre Martinez Reed is an artist of seriousnessand substance, exceptionally gifted and well-disciplined across many fields
and many disciples, these united in a common pursuit of excellence and in artful expression of self and world."Allen Tobias
By The Act Of Imagination. By The Invocation Of Magic!"
Joan Miró
The Vigorous Spirit is completed and will be ready later this year.
Finally after twenty years of dedicated work to this book. I finally feel ready to share my work with the world!
Here are some sample pages of some of the more than 175 paintings featured in this book.
The book will also include several essays from a very select group of very talented individuals and two
essays from my lovely daughters.
Hymn To Roy Campell
Oil On Canvas
"What I see in the painting is a religious procession in some undiscovered society."
The magic of André’s visual work is it’s interweaving of abstraction and representation. They function as separate cogs in a well-oiled engine.
It’s the way African-derived polyrhythm functions. A rumba, samba, funk or swing shuffle is built on an ensemble of instruments.
In every rhythm each instrument or instrument section is assigned a specific repetitive part unique to that section.
The part itself won’t get you sweating up the dance floor. It’s when the parts roll together that the groove catches fire.
Vanishing Landscapes - Oil On Canvas
Brian Groder
Homage to Gustave Courbet I | Oil on canvas, 60" 72"
"The Job Of The Artist Is Always To Deepen The Mystery." (Francis Bacon)
Living Spirit - Jimmy Cruiz
Art encounters of a far-reaching kind…
“ I do not doubt interiors have their interiors, and exteriors have their exteriors,
and that the eyesight has another eyesight, and the hearing another hearing, and the voice another voice.” Walt Whitman
This quote by Walt Whitman seems to encapsulate the dimensionality of the creative spirit of my friend, Andre Martinez Reed.
My first encounter with Andre Martinez Reed was at the Henry Gregg Gallery, which he owned and curated. The power and diversity of works on exhibit were quick to spark a lively interchange. It was immediately apparent that the works exhibited were, in a sense, reflections of Andre’s keen, discerning, and often spiritual sensibility.
As my relationship with Andre deepened, I realized he was truly an artist accomplished in several diverse art forms. His rich background as a composer, and drummer, working with legendary Cecil Taylor and other jazz greats, coalesced with his abstraction in visual art.
As a photographer, in addition to exhibiting in his gallery, I was fortunate enough to photograph a selection from the treasure trove of Andre’s paintings.
The colors flow, the forms lay rhythmically on the canvas and dance almost as a jazz drum beats-one art form flowing in syncopation into another, often surrendering to the spirit beneath the paint, waiting to appear...
This collection of images, coming together in a book, will provide sustaining victuals for a searching artistic soul.
Anthony Almeida, Photographer
Chairman of Photography Initiatives, Salmagundi Club, New York, NY.
Whitney Museum Open Plan 2016
https://whitney.org/Events/ListeningSessionAndreMartinez
https://burningambulance.com/2015/03/23/cecil-taylor-in-1983/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Em9s2W8tQQ
Capturing The Invisible - The Photography of André Martinez Reed
New book to debut next year sometime in the fall feautring over 200 photos.
Look Again
"Using the camera to illustrate the presence of the para normal, the spiritual, Martinez shot seemingly mundane, unremarkable scenes ofhouse furnishings stirring in normal light using no more than a simple lens and film. The images caught are surreal, suggesting, isolating, a spirit presence.This exhibition is designed to create an atmosphere of spiritual dialog between painter, subject and visitor.
It can easily extend as a long journey, a metaphysical voyage. All one need do, as I have done, is look, look again."
Moe Seager
Virtual Man - ©2020
Red Hook - ©2020
Mystery of Incandescence #2 ©2020
Out Of Reach - ©2020
"I Paint What Cannot Be Photographed, And I Photograph What I Wish Not To Paint!
Painting And Photography Are Two Media Engaged In Different Paths.
There Is No Conflict."
Man Ray
"I believe, to understand the workings of the Spirits roaming the Universe, one must first become aware of its existence. Once one does, it is only a matter of stepping through the door. One cannot look back as one explores one's subtle surroundings and realize the wonder of all the infinite possibilities that exist around us. As an artist, one need not labor to capture the unexplained in a photograph, music or painting. With one's openness of mind, the result will make the presence of Spirit known and felt in the works that will become a living entity if true.
André Martinez Reed
The Cecil Taylor Unit - Live In Willisau
( Double Vinyl Album - Nicaragua No Paseran)
Cecil Taylor - Piano, Jimmy Lyons - Alto Saxe, William Parker - Bass, Rashid Bakr - Drums, André Martinez Reed - Drums-Percussion
https://soundcloud.com/ndrartinez/sets/cecil-taylor-unit
https://soundcloud.com/ndrartinez/cecil-taylor-unit-live-in-berlin-philharmonic?in=ndrartinez/sets/cecil-taylor-unit
Live In Paris
Cecil Taylor Orchestra of Two Continents - Winged Serpent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Em9s2W8tQQ
Orchestra: Cecil Taylor - Piano, Jimmy Lyons - Alto Sax, William Parker - Contra Bass, André Martinez - Drums & Percussion, Frank Wright - Tenor Sax, Karen Borca - Bassoon
Gunter Hampel - Sax, John Tchai - Sax, Tomaso Stanko - Trumpet
Earth People - Live at the ShapeShifter Lab - Brooklyn, NY
Jason Candler, Doug Principato, Mark Hennen, Karen Borca, Gunter Hampel,
Danny Carter, On Davis,Tomaso Ulrich, DJ Firehorse, Jimmy Cruiz, Elliot Levine, Brian Groder,
Ricardo Solis, Rosie Hertlien, Chris Forbes, Francois Grillot, Andre Martinez Reed
https://soundcloud.com/ndrartinez/earth-people-live-2016-excerpt-america-in-crisis-unmixed-version
http://earthpeople.tv
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7gU06UU4p4
https://soundcloud.com/ndrartinez/earth-people-dont-think-about-it
Karen Borca - Conducts The Music of Cecil Taylor - 2019 at Brooklyn College with Orchestra
Musicians: Karen Borca, basson , Evie Ward, voice/poetry, Michelle Yom, flute, Pawan Benjamin, sax and bansuri flute,
Ras Moshe Burnett, woodwinds, Elliott Levin, woodwinds, Charles Sharp, woodwinds, Elizabeth Newton, alto sax,
Bobby Zankel, alto sax, Dario Fariello, sax, Paolo Rossi, tenor sax, Scott Currie, alto/baritone sax,
Ben Zucker, trumpet/vibraphones, Juian Velasco, vibraphones, Anthony Caulkins, guitar, Rafel Goncalves, guitar,
Dominic Lash, double bass, Gahlord Dewald, double bass, Jeff Schwartz, double bass, Ashlae Blūme, accordion
Mark Micchelli, piano, André Martinez Reed - drums
Yes, Exactly, Yes! - Live in Red Hook - Brooklyn, NY
Justin Frankel - Guitar/Bass/ Sax/ Vocals, Andy Omel - Guitar/Bass, André Martinez Reed - Drums
with Sarai Moore and Cory Choy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfYuKqWMie4&list=PLVpS2zufKfv4orIfG9B1vnxDwMd9-f-cK&index=21
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=descdY-8giU&list=PLVpS2zufKfv4orIfG9B1vnxDwMd9-f-cK&index=15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVdB-xIsUGk&list=PLVpS2zufKfv4orIfG9B1vnxDwMd9-f-cK&index=16
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoswHLA1000&list=PLVpS2zufKfv4orIfG9B1vnxDwMd9-f-cK&index=17
The Original Pie De Boi
Performing at the Mudd Club in NYC
Gilhermé Franco, Andre Martinez, Jessie Miranda, Alyrio Lima, Ricardo Torres, Duduka Da Fonseca, Jimmy Cruiz, Ciro Baptista,
Marcio Sapeo and others. I am the one wearing straw hat.
Can be heard performing on this track below.
Chanting exchange between Gilhermé & André after samba part.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbZXqjJrkXI
"When art flows effortlessly in motion, everything becomes a visible force with an energy that can only come from its creator. That oneself genuinely understands and then shares the experience with others.
Ricardo Solis
Where There Is Darkness
We Must Shine Light!
" You Don't Take A Photograph, You Make It"
- Ansel Adams
In my language, the word for miracle, zázrak, describes something that lies beyond the visible world, out of sight. It is the essence that, for millennia, we have tried to ever so gingerly explore through the one and only project, which is simply called art and which has managed to retain its deep shamanic meaning in the face of an art industry that spews out plastic amulets by the billions. If we let ourselves be carried away and pass through one André Martinez Reed’s portals, we find ourselves in a remarkable rainbow world somewhere between reality and abstraction, a world familiar enough for us to consider our own but also mysterious enough to entice us and draw us into its own unique order.
Igor Malijevsky´
The Intrusion
The Vanished Minds
A Ritual for Symphony
The Various Shades of Grey
The Dark Side Of The City
In The Shadows
The Forgotten Sides
A Gathering of Angels
Lazarus Rising
André Martinez Reed © 4/25/2020
Whatever you create, create with an intent to please a higher power.
Create with pureness and integrity.
Create with patience and endurance through all phases of life.
In times of strife, search for the meaning of the lesson behind the chaos.
When life returns to normalcy, never forget what is in control of all.
Whatever your art may be, reflect all phases, but never forget to strive.
Strive in pleasing the beauty, the peace, and the intent found in art in its rawest form.
Aiming to please the ruler of all.
All thanks be to God.
Lauren Martinez©2020
"Looking At Your Paintings, Is Like Listening To Coltrane"
Love Your Sense Of Color!
Jason Kuriloff
Tinkerbell - Oil on Canvas
"When he paints, he’s infusing all of his wonders, agonies, joys, sufferings and sheer
wisdom into luminous treasures with meaning, and most of the time, multiple
meanings. Art is not taught, it is innate. It is bestowed, a gift from your Creator
where you embark on a spiritual romance birthing a new creation from the ether."
Tanya Monique Vazquez
Portal V — The Seasons | Oil On Canvas, 60"x 60"
Breaking the Code Two—Presence | Oil on canvas, 60" 60"
Pages From New Upcoming Book - The Vigorous Sprit
These are gorgeous!
Gahlord Dewald
https://gahlorddewald.bandcamp.com/album/coherent-light-enclosed-without
Once I Finish A Painting, I Then Put It Through A Process I Have Developed Through The Years To Verify And Reveal
The Spirit And Energy That Lies Beneath And Not Seen. Here Is A Sample From A Painting Titled
"The Miracle Of The Sun."
Reflections
Be reflections of my mercy, be deliverers of grace to one another.
Make use of time for thought and contemplation of a knowledge that's never-ending.
Dip yourselves in the illumination of truth.
Simplify the complications of thought patterns and feel the quiet, steady beat of the heart.
Inhale the oxygen of pureness and exhale the chaos that stirs in one's core.
Feel the echoes of the wind, and the cleansing of the rain.
As you gaze at the stars, feel my presence.
It surmounts around you and abounds above and below you.
Lauren Martinez ©5/15/2020
"The Most Beautiful Thing We Can Experience Is The Mysterious.
It Is the Source Of All True Art And Science."
Albert Einstein