{{Short description|American artist and painter (1944–2023)}} {{Infobox artist | name = Martha Diamond | website = [https://marthadiamondstudio.net marthadiamondstudio.net] | known_for = Painting and printmaking | education = Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota – BA, 1964<br>New York University – MA, 1969 | birth_date = {{birth date|1944|5|1}} | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2023|12|30|1944|5|1}} | death_place = New York City, U.S. }}
'''Martha Bonnie Diamond''' (May 1, 1944 – December 30, 2023) was an American painter. Her paintings first gained public attention in the 1980s<ref>[https://brooklynrail.org/2021/02/artseen/Martha-Diamond-1980-1989] Martha Diamond: 1980-1989 by Nina Wolpow at The Brooklyn Rail</ref> and are included in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and many other institutions.
==Early life and education== Martha Bonnie Diamond was born on May 1, 1944,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Heinrich |first=Will |date=January 9, 2024 |title=Martha Diamond, Painter Who Captured New York Vistas, Dies at 79 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/arts/martha-diamond-dead.html |access-date=January 4, 2024 |work=The New York Times |page=B12 |language=en-US |volume=173 |issue=60028 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> and raised in Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village, New York.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Calhoun |first1=Ada |title=St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America's Hippest Street |date=November 2, 2015 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=9780393249798}}</ref> Her father, a doctor, inspired her interest in light, space, and structure in the city while taking her on drives to see his patients.<ref>{{cite web |title=Martha Diamond ''Cityscapes'' at Galerie Eva Presenhuber, New York |url=http://moussemagazine.it/martha-diamond-cityscapes-at-galerie-eva-presenhuber-new-york-2018/ |website=moussemagazine.it |accessdate=June 18, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726185759/http://moussemagazine.it/martha-diamond-cityscapes-at-galerie-eva-presenhuber-new-york-2018/ |archive-date=July 26, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> She graduated from Carleton College in Minnesota. in 1964 and returned to New York in 1965 after a year in Paris.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Berkson |first=Bill |date=January 1990 |title=Martha Diamond: Sensation Rising |url=https://www.artforum.com/print/199001/martha-diamond-sensation-rising-34251 |access-date=October 5, 2022 |website=Artforum}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2024-01-06 |title=MARTHA DIAMOND (1944–2023) |url=https://www.artforum.com/news/martha-diamond-dies-19442024-545891/ |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}}</ref> She subsequently received an M.A. from New York University in 1969,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Martha Diamond |url=https://nationalacademy.emuseum.com/people/4515/martha-diamond/objects/images |access-date=November 10, 2022 |website=National Academy of Design}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> moved into a loft on the Bowery, and became an active participant in the downtown art and poetry scene.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Biography |url=http://marthadiamondtrust.org/biography |access-date=2023-10-22 |website=MARTHA DIAMOND |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Work and career == thumb|402x402px|Martha Diamond, ''Cityscape with Blue Shadow'', 1994. Oil on canvas, 96 x 48 inches. Collection Portland Museum of Art. Gift of the Alex Katz Foundation. Diamond has claimed to be influenced by the New York School. Although known primarily for her expressionistic urban landscapes,<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Fyfe |first=Joe |date=May 2005 |year= |title=Essay |no-pp=y |work=Art in America |publisher= |url=https://nyss.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Essay-by-Joe-Fyfe.pdf |access-date=October 22, 2023}}</ref> she rejected the Neo-Expressionist label that was applied to many painters in the early 1980s. Diamond stated that "I’m more concerned with a vision than expressionism and I try to paint that vision realistically. I try to paint my perceptions rather than paint through emotion"<ref name=":0" /> and her work has been described as similar to the capriccios of 18th-century Italy, "Diamond's paintings are a kind of fiction, but one that imparts the character of downtown New York."<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=JOE FYFE - resume |url=http://joefyfe.com/Resume.asp |access-date=2023-10-22 |website=joefyfe.com}}</ref>
The bulk of Diamond's work ranges from such partially abstract cityscapes to pure abstractions, often on a very large scale. Her first solo show was held at Brooke Alexander Gallery in 1976, where she showed work until the 1980s.<ref name=":3" /> She was included in the 1989 Whitney Biennial,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Whitney Biennial 1989 |url=https://whitney.org/exhibitions/biennial-1989 |access-date=November 10, 2022 |website=Whitney Museum of American Art}}</ref> her cityscapes were described in the catalog for the show as "spectral abstractions of the city, looming in a charged atmosphere enriched by her free color sense."<ref>{{Cite book |title=1989 Biennial Exhibition |publisher=Whitney/Norton |year=1989 |isbn=0-393-30439-6 |location=New York |pages=44–47}}</ref> She has had solo exhibitions at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and the Portland Museum of Art in Maine (1988), at the New York Studio School (2004), among others.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Martha Diamond |url=https://magentaplains.com/artists/martha-diamond/bio |access-date=November 10, 2022 |website=Magenta Plains}}</ref>
The paintings in her 1988 exhibition at Robert Miller were described in ''The New York Times'' as "deceptively simple, full of hidden skills and decisions that only gradually reveal themselves." The same review noted that some of the works looked unfinished<ref>{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Roberta |date=March 18, 1988 |title=Review/Art; Action in New Paintings By Martha Diamond |work=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/18/arts/review-art-action-in-new-paintings-by-martha-diamond.html |url-status=live |accessdate=June 18, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160929223237/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/18/arts/review-art-action-in-new-paintings-by-martha-diamond.html |archive-date=September 29, 2016}}</ref>—a theme that was repeated by television newscaster Peter Jennings when he visited her loft on the Bowery loft as part of a charity event years later. "I'll ask the rude question," Jennings remarked, "Are they finished?" The ''Times'' reported that they were.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Marin |first=Rick |date=November 21, 1999 |title=Going Downtown with/Peter Jennings: Footloose Where Art Lives |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/21/style/going-downtown-with-peter-jennings-footloose-where-art-lives.html}}</ref> The ''New Yorker'' critic Peter Schjeldahl wrote in 2018, "Diamond romances the town in darting and slashing strokes," her buildings "as zestfully urbane as the perambulatory poems of Frank O’Hara."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Schjeldahl |first=Peter |title=Martha Diamond |url=https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/art/martha-diamond |magazine=The New Yorker}}</ref> Reviewing a 2021 exhibition of her paintings from the 1980s at Magenta Plains, Will Heinrich of the ''Times'' described them as having "self-contained grandeur and eerie harmony."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Heinrich` |first=Will |date=January 20, 2021 |title=3 Art Gallery Shows to See Right Now |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/arts/design/3-art-gallery-shows-to-see-right-now.html |access-date=October 22, 2023}}</ref>
Diamond was one of several New York painters who spent time in Maine during the summer months and developed a long-term association with the state.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} She served on the Board of Governors of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine, from 1982 to 2018.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Boards & Staff |journal=Skowhegan Journal 2015-2020 |pages=69}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> She also taught at Skowhegan beginning in the 1970s, as well as at the School of Visual Arts in New York and at Harvard University.<ref name=":1" /> Diamond also supported artistic programming by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and the Goddard-Riverside Community Center.<ref name=":3" /> She died on December 30, 2023 at the age of 79.<ref name="nytimes">{{cite web |last=Heinrich |first=Will |date=January 9, 2024 |title=Martha Diamond, Painter Who Captured New York Vistas, Dies at 79 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/arts/martha-diamond-dead.html |access-date=January 4, 2024 |website=New York Times |publisher= |page=B12}}</ref>
==Collections== Diamond's paintings and prints are included in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art,<ref>{{cite web |title=Martha Diamond |url=https://www.whitney.org/artists/352 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408000236/https://www.whitney.org/artists/352 |archive-date=2019-04-08 |access-date=2019-04-08 |website=Whitney Museum of American Art}}</ref> the Museum of Modern Art,<ref>{{cite web |title=Martha Diamond - MoMA |url=https://www.moma.org/artists/1525?locale=en |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161107084523/https://www.moma.org/artists/1525?locale=en |archive-date=2016-11-07 |access-date=2019-04-08 |website=The Museum of Modern Art}}</ref> the National Academy of Design,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Martha Diamond |url=https://nationalacademy.emuseum.com/people/4515/martha-diamond |access-date=2023-10-22 |website=National Academy of Design |language=}}</ref> and the Brooklyn Museum<ref>{{cite web |title=Brooklyn Museum |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/113743 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408000236/https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/113743 |archive-date=2019-04-08 |access-date=2019-04-08 |website=www.brooklynmuseum.org}}</ref> in New York;<ref name=":1" /> the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Results |url=https://collections.mfa.org/search/Objects/*/martha%20diamond |access-date=November 10, 2022 |website=MFA Boston}}</ref> the Farnsworth Art Museum,<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 20, 2022 |title=Explore the Collection |url=https://collection.farnsworthmuseum.org/objects?query=%22Martha+Diamond%22 |website=Farnsworth Art Museum}}</ref> the Portland Museum of Art,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Portland Museum of Art Collections - |url=https://collections.portlandmuseum.org/objects-1/thumbnails?records=10&query=mfs%20all%20%22martha%20diamond%22&sort=9 |access-date=2023-10-23 |website=Portland Museum of Art}}</ref> the Bowdoin College Museum of Art,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Martha Diamond |url=https://artmuseum.bowdoin.edu/artist-maker/info/4520 |access-date=2023-10-23 |website=artmuseum.bowdoin.edu}}</ref> and the Colby College Museum of Art<ref>{{Cite web |title=Search |url=https://museum.colby.edu/?s=martha+diamond |access-date=October 20, 2022 |website=Colby Museum of Art}}</ref> in Maine; the Art Institute of Chicago;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Martha Diamond |url=https://www.artic.edu/artists/54604/martha-diamond |access-date=November 10, 2022 |website=Art Institute Chicago}}</ref> the High Museum of Art in Atlanta;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Carriage |url=https://high.org/collections/carriage/ |access-date=2022-09-17 |website=High Museum of Art |language=en-US}}</ref> the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Martha Diamond |url=https://ncartmuseum.org/artist/martha-diamond/ |access-date=October 5, 2022 |website=North Carolina Museum of Art}}</ref> the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Works {{!}} Martha Diamond {{!}} People {{!}} The MFAH Collections |url=https://emuseum.mfah.org/people/6915/martha-diamond/objects |access-date=October 22, 2023 |website=The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston}}</ref> and the National Gallery of Australia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Gallery - Search the Collection |url=https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?irn=29789}}</ref>
==Recognition== In 2001, Diamond received an Academy Award for Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Awards |url=https://artsandletters.org/awards/ |access-date=November 10, 2022 |website=American Academy of Arts and Letters}}</ref> and in 2017 she received an Anonymous Was a Woman Award for painting.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Recipients to Date |url=https://www.anonymouswasawoman.org/previous-recipients |access-date=2023-10-23 |website=Anonymous Was A Woman |language=en-US}}</ref> She was elected to the National Academy of Design in 2018.<ref name=":1" />
==Art market== Diamond established the Martha Diamond Trust in 2020, which has since been working on a catalogue raisonné.<ref name="artnews.com">Maximilìano Duròn (21 September 2023), [https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/martha-diamond-joins-david-kordansky-gallery-1234680087/ David Kordansky Gallery Now Represents Martha Diamond, Painter of Striking Views of New York City] ''ARTnews''.</ref>
Diamond has been represented by David Kordansky Gallery since 2023.<ref name="artnews.com"/> She previously showed with Brooke Alexander Gallery (1976–85) and Robert Miller (1985–94).<ref name="artnews.com"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.marthadiamondstudio.net/ Artist's website] * [https://www.davidkordanskygallery.com/artist/martha-diamond Artist's page on David Kordansky Gallery site] * [https://dn790007.ca.archive.org/0/items/marthadiamond00bowd/marthadiamond00bowd.pdf Bowdoin College Museum of Art catalogue: ''Martha Diamond'']
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Diamond, Martha}} Category:1944 births Category:2023 deaths Category:20th-century American women artists Category:20th-century American artists Category:21st-century American women Category:Artists from New York City