Martha Diamond, the American painter known for her investigation of form and abstraction while consistently painting urban landscapes, has died on 30 December 2023. Born in New York City, Diamond found endless inspiration in the city, painting its streets and skyscrapers throughout her career. ‘Long esteemed by her fellow-artists and deserving of wider fame’, wrote critic Peter Schjeldahl of Diamond in a review of the artist’s summer 2018 exhibition at Galerie Eva Presenhuber in Downtown Manhattan, describing how her paintings of the city are ‘giddily celebratory and drunk on daylight’.
‘When I first encountered Martha’s extraordinary work, I was instantly blown away by both the beauty of her paintings and the sense that this work was made in a particular space and time, encapsulating a lived history while expanding and abstracting an otherwise familiar visual lexicon,’ said her gallerist David Kordansky. ‘Beyond the striking visual elements and her command of color and texture, there is so much feeling emanating from the canvas. These are the stories and legacies that I have the privilege and duty to share and honor. Martha will be deeply missed.’
The first solo show of Diamond’s work at David Kordansky, the gallery she joined in 2023, will be on view in Los Angeles 23 March–27 April 2024. A survey of her work, Martha Diamond: Deep Time, will open at the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine, on 13 July and will be on view through 13 October 2024. It will then travel to The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut where it will be on view 17 November 2024–18 May 2025.
