“MARTHA DIAMOND: DEEP TIME”
“Diamond believes ‘life is defined by time,’ and yet, her artworks transcend it.” —Cultured
On view November 17, 2024–May 18, 2025 at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut
Martha Diamond in her Bowery studio, c. 1994. In the background: Cityscape Black/White/Grey No. 3, 1994. Photo © Luigi Cazzaniga
“Diamond portrays the coldness of the cityscape and the fears its nooks and crannies elicit from strangers and residents alike. But after a visit to the serenity she lives and works in, the artist’s paintings and studio form that edge between fear and delight that Immanuel Kant said is the meaning of ‘sublime.’ The fear elicited by the city’s mightiness turns to delight at the order man imposes with tons of brick, marble, mortar. . . . I’ve been in many artists’ studios, but it is only after leaving Martha Diamond’s that the city looks different to me.”
—Barbara Moynehan, Domus, June 1984