Art in Focus with Dr. Frank Martin

In a series of spotlight talks, Dr. Frank Martin explores themes found in an individual artwork on view, offering an opportunity to discover new insights with a true fine arts specialist. In celebration of Black History Month, this  Art in Focus features Roses in a Green Vase by Charles Ethan Porter, thought to be among the first, if not the first, African Americans to study at the National Academy of Design in New York. Learn more about this artist and the significance of this beloved CMA Collection artwork, on view in newly opened spring exhibition Interior Lives: Modern American Spaces, 1890 – 1945. Free with membership or admission. Join today!

Dr. Frank C. Martin II serves as visiting associate professor of art history and art theory at South Carolina State University and is the retired director of The I.P. Stanback Museum & Planetarium, located on the campus of the university. A graduate of Yale University and the City University of New York, Hunter College, with additional study in contemporary art and art theory at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University, Martin holds a Ph.D. in philosophy with a specialization in axiology and the history of aesthetics from the University of South Carolina. A former lecturer and associate manager of the Office of Education Services for the Uris Education Center of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Martin has served as an academic advisor for the PBS documentary Shared History and has worked as a contributing critic in the fine arts for Charleston’s The Post and Courier. Martin is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art) based in Paris.