(1907 - 1969)
Mary Martin was born in Folkestone, Kent and studied at Goldsmiths School of Art (1925–29) and the Royal College of Art (1929–32) where she met Kenneth Martin, whom she married in 1930. Both were part of a group of abstract artists who worked with Victor Pasmore in 1951. They co-designed a section dedicated to abstract art in the This Is Tomorrow exhibition, (Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1956). Mary Martin participated in major exhibitions of international abstract art in the 1960s. She believed that art had a social role to improve life and from 1956 until her death, worked on several public commissions including projects for the University of Sterling (1969) and the P&O ship, SS Oriana. A major retrospective of Kenneth and Mary Martin’s work was held at the Camden Arts Centre in 2007.
