By the time he arrived in Baltimore in 1948, Keith Martin’s work had already been featured in solo exhibitions in New York, London and Paris. A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, he studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and following his formal education, he spent two years in Paris, Berlin and Vienna before his artistic pursuits were interrupted by service in the military during World War II. Recognized both for his paintings and for his production in collage which he began in 1954, Martin brought to his compositions complex, intensely personal imagery evocative of such movements as cubism and surrealism. Once asked to comment on his production, he replied, “My art is a visual experience, intuitive and difficult for me to express in words. I believe the observer should be allowed the excitement of a personal interpretation.” A critic responding to his elegantly crafted works saw in them, “invention, drama, whimsy, magic and delight.”