Kenneth Martin, a leading post-war artist, was born in Sheffield where he studied and worked before attending the Royal College of Art (RCA) in 1929. In 1930 he married Mary Martin (1907-1969) also a leading abstract artist. His first solo show was held at the Leicester Galleries in 1943 and he made his first kinetic sculptures in 1951. Martin taught at Goldsmiths’ College of Art from 1946 to 1967. In 1971 he was awarded an OBE and in 1976, an Honorary Doctorate at the RCA. A retrospective was held at the Tate in 1975. In 1985 a survey show of Martin’s drawings and paintings was held at the Serpentine Gallery, Londo while in 2007, an exhibition of Kenneth and Mary Martin’s work was held at the Camden Arts Centre in London.
