The exhibition provides a comprehensive overview of paintings by the New York-based artist, Martha Diamond (1944–2023). Offering a unique insight into Diamond’s work, the exhibition will showcase the urban energy of her paintings and her distinctive interpretation of the modernist legacy.
Martha Diamond developed an early fascination with buildings, spatial relationships, and constructed environments. She became known for her energetic paintings, driven by light, color, and bold brushwork, moving fluidly between figuration and abstraction. The forms and rhythms of skyscrapers, along with shifting light and scale, served as an initial inspiration for her work. Yet, more than the subject matter itself, she was primarily concerned with the act of painting and the possibilities it could uncover.
Early in her artistic career, Diamond settled in Manhattan’s Bowery neighbourhood, where she lived and worked in the same studio loft until the end of her life. She was an integral part of an interdisciplinary circle of friends including artists and poets. She was a highly regarded artist among her colleagues — an ‘artist’s artist’ — whose works were acquired early on for the collections of prestigious American museums.
The exhibition at the Sara Hildén Art Museum features a significant selection of Diamond’s paintings, spanning from the early stages of her career in the 1970s to her most recent works, as well as notes related to her creative process. The exhibition experience is enriched by a video biography of the artist and the recording of her 1983 Faculty Lecture at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture.
An illustrated catalogue featuring an essay by art historian Kiko Aebi, and Martha Diamond: Keys to the City, written by poet and longtime friend of the artist, Anne Waldman will be published alongside the exhibition.
This exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Martha Diamond Trust (New York), founded by the artist in 2020, and Thaddaeus Ropac gallery (Salzburg, Paris, London, Milan, Seoul), which represents the artist.
