Martin Janto

THE GALLERY SEEKS EARLY ARTWORK BY MARTIN JANTO - ESPECIALLY ARTWORK AS A LAYTON STUDENT PRE 1950. CONTACT THE GALLERY AT: info@GalleryofWisconsinArt.com

BORN: November 11, 1918, Cudahy, WI

DIED: June 16, 1993, Washington, Maine

Martin, the fifth child of seven was born on Armistice Day,. His parents were farmers, and immigrants from what is now Slovakia.

As a youth, he was a talented athlete, and at 14, he was commissioned to produce a banner to span the main street of Cudahy - to mark the first Infantile Paralysis drive; a portrait of President Roosevelt.

At 17, he hitchhiked to Florida and back and later worked for the area's largest employer - Cudahy Brothers Meat Packing Plant. He was active helping to found the first meat packers' union.

In 1942 Martin was inducted into the army and while on active duty, sustained a serious eye injury. Discharged in 1944, he began attending the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee on the GI Bill. After graduating from Layton in 1948, he attended the Chicago Art Institute. With the proceeds from selling his art work, moved to Europe. His art at this time was generally realistic, direct, with surreal overtones.

After study at the Sorbonne in Paris, he had a successful one-person show. He moved to Rome in 1952 and held his second succesful show. His European period is marked with bright oranges and yellows, figurative, and expressionistic.

Martin returned to the States in 1953, and settled in NYC at a time when abstract expressionism was becoming an important and controversial movement. His early paintings in NY included the flavor of the environment--the buildings and bridges with some figurative content. Martin also experimented with a drip style in very large paintings, darker in mood.

Influenced by the fervent artistic climate of the time, he embarked on his major style using an old master technique of glazes. With as many as 60 layers of thin washes of color, the translucent layers of clear color reflects back to the eye. The work is abstract, and colorful with great depth. He later incorporated texture onto the surface using cardboard, rice paper, burlap, etc.

In 1961 Martin accepted a position as Head of the Art Department with Browning School for Boys in Manhattan. He taught and set up a photography darkroom, woodworking, ceramics and general art. He also taught a college level art history course.

In 1965, he and his wife Phyllis bought a home in Washington, Maine,  and became year round residents in 1990. Martin's eyesight continued to deteriorate through the 1970's.

In 1980 Martin became legally blind and no longer painted in oils; he did however still do watercolors and pastels. In 1981 Martin retired from teaching. After becoming completely blind in 1985, Martin began to make sculptures of alabaster and soapstone, pieces having animal, birdlike or animal-human motifs. He was an extremely prolific artist with a strong drive to produce.

After a long illness beginning in 1991, he succumbed to pneumonia in 1993.