Agnes Martin - With My Back to the World was shot over a period of four years, from 1998 through 2002, following artist Agnes Martin's ninetieth year. The film includes several interviews with Martin that are inter-cut with shots of the artist at work in her studio in Taos, New Mexico, with photographs, archival footage, and with other images of her work from over five decades.

The practice of Agnes Martin (1912 - 2004) is defined by the use of the geometric motif, with lines and grids as fundamental elements of her early works, connected to Zen Buddhist and American Transcendentalist ideas. After a break from painting from 1967 to 1974, her work abandoned the rigid schemes of pure grids and lines to become bolder, although still minimalist, using a palette of colours influenced by nuances of the desert of Taos, where she spent the last years of her life.

This documentary is a rare occasion to hear Martin speak about her work, her working methods, her life as an artist, and her views about the creative process. She also discusses her film, "Gabriel" and reads from her poetry and lectures. In keeping with Martin's chosen life of solitude, she alone appears in the documentary.