The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

Skip to main content

Important Update

November 17, 2024 to May 18, 2025 | Camera Obscura, Opatrny Gallery, Sound Gallery, Bridge Gallery, South Gallery, Balcony Gallery

Martha Diamond: Deep Time

Your life is defined in time. The way I relate to this in my work is by thinking of infinity: to the time of religion, of history…using shapes that have been significant to people for thousands of years.

—Martha Diamond, interviewed for the Whitney Biennial 1989

Colby College Museum of Art: July 13 to October 13, 2024
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum: November 17, 2024 to May 18, 2025

Martha Diamond is among the most perceptive painters of the last five decades. Her works formal concision and painterly bravado reflect an inner dialogue with generations of abstract artists, and the results are exceptional: an inimitable handling of gesture and space that reimagines the landscape tradition while deftly sliding between abstraction and representation. Comprised of paintings, works on paper, and monotypes, this focused survey of Diamonds career proposes “deep time” as a new way of understanding her contribution to American painting.

As a concept, deep time has two histories: Enlightenment scientists, poets, and theologians have theorized it to trace symmetries and parallels across the development of human civilization, and geologists use it to describe cycles of stability and upheaval across many millions of years on this planet. In conversation with both ancient monuments and the modern skyscraper, and carrying its own distinctive psychology and ecology, Diamond’s art thinks about time and across time.

This exhibition spotlights the architectural and compositional fascinations that define Diamonds singular vision. It emphasizes her unswerving commitment to capturing the emotional character of built space, tracking throughlines across mediums and methods to reveal a process that combines spirited experimentation with perceptive observation. The exhibition features rarely seen pieces from the Lower Manhattan studio Diamond occupied for fifty-four years, from the little-known single-picture” images of the 1970s to the vertiginous paintings of her native New York City during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s to the vivid abstractions that increasingly characterized her later work.

The exhibition is accompanied by the artists first major monograph, an amply illustrated catalogue that includes an original essay by the exhibitions co-curators, a chronology, and texts reprinted from some of Diamonds most insightful critics: New York poets steeped in the visual arts. Martha Diamond: Deep Time documents the inspirations that converge in, and are transformed by, Diamonds enigmatic and utterly original work.

This exhibition is co-organized by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and the Colby College Museum of Art, and co-curated by The Aldrichs Chief Curator, Amy Smith-Stewart and Colbys Katz Consulting Curator, Levi Prombaum.

About The Artist

Martha Diamond (1944-2023) received a BA from Carleton College in Minnesota in 1964 and, after a period of living abroad in Paris, an MA from New York University in 1969. She was an active participant in New York’s art and poetry scenes in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her work has been shown at major New York galleries and institutions from the mid-1970s on, including solo exhibitions at Robert Miller Gallery, Brooke Alexander Gallery, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, and the New York Studio School and important group shows at Skarstedt, the Hill Art Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. She also had concurrent solo exhibitions in 1988 at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, and the Portland Museum of Art, Maine. Her work is in the permanent collections of numerous institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine; the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine; the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Minneapolis Institute of Art; and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Her work was in the former collection of The Aldrich and was exhibited at the museum in group exhibitions in 1973, 1974, 1985, and 1988. She is currently represented by David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles and New York. For more information, please visit marthadiamondtrust.org.

Video

A conversation hosted by Brooklyn Rail: Martha Diamond: Deep Time, featuring Ilka Scobie, Joel Shapiro, Anne Waldman, and Phong H. Bui

Links



Related Events

December 18, 2024 at 1:00 pm

Seniors-Only Tour

Join us for this in-person gallery tour of highlighted works from our current exhibitions, guided by Education and Access Specialist Holly Lapine, reserved specifically for senior adults ages 60 and above!

December 18, 2024 at 5:30 pm | Group Tours

Curator-Led Tour with Chief Curator Amy Smith-Stewart | FULL

Join Chief Curator Amy Smith-Stewart for a tour of Martha Diamond: Deep Time, a five-decade survey exhibition of the artist's work. Members please join us for a 5pm reception with refreshments prior to the tour.

December 21, 2024 at 10:00 am | Third Saturdays, Free Admission

Third Saturdays

Visit the Museum for FREE the third Saturday of every month as part of our Third Saturdays program.

December 21, 2024 at 1:00 pm | Third Saturdays, Free Admission, Group Tours

All Ages Discovery Tour

Have you ever looked at contemporary art and wished you knew what it meant? Have you ever entered a museum without knowing where to start? If you answered yes, this free, interactive, and judgment-free tour of our current exhibitions guided by a Museum Educator is perfect for you!

December 29, 2024 at 2:00 pm | Group Tours

All Ages Discovery Tour

Have you ever looked at contemporary art and wished you knew what it meant? Have you ever entered a museum not knowing where to start? If you answered yes, join Education Assistant Antonio Paone for a free tour of the exhibitions designed to activate your curiosity and engage your attention.

January 15, 2025 at 1:00 pm | Group Tours

Seniors-Only Tour

Join us for this in-person gallery tour of highlighted works from our current exhibitions, guided by Education and Access Specialist Holly Lapine, reserved specifically for senior adults ages 60 and above!

January 16, 2025 at 4:30 pm | Special Event

Educator Open House

The Aldrich’s Education Department would like to welcome you to our winter Educator Open House! Participate in a highlights tour of the galleries, make artwork inspired by the exhibitions on view, and connect with our education department. Snacks and drinks provided. Come, network with local educators, and get more information about the programs we can offer your students. Special discussion and materials about our Accessibility Programming will be featured. Entry is free for current or retired teachers but requires registration online.

January 18, 2025 at 1:00 pm | Third Saturdays, Free Admission, Group Tours

All Ages Discovery Tour

Have you ever looked at contemporary art and wished you knew what it meant? Have you ever entered a museum without knowing where to start? If you answered yes, this free, interactive, and judgment-free tour of our current exhibitions guided by a Museum Educator is perfect for you!

January 21, 2025 at 5:30 pm | Public Programs

"Getting” Contemporary Art: Martha Diamond and The Garden of Promise and Dissent, full series

Join us for “Getting” Contemporary Art led by Kristen Erickson, art history teacher and Director of the Luchsinger Gallery at Greenwich Academy.

January 21, 2025 at 5:30 pm | Public Programs

"Getting” Contemporary Art: Martha Diamond: Deep Time

Join us for “Getting” Contemporary Art led by Kristen Erickson, art history teacher and Director of the Luchsinger Gallery at Greenwich Academy.

January 26, 2025 at 2:00 pm | Group Tours

Sunday Afternoon Sessions

Are you curious about the world of contemporary art but unsure where to begin? When you view works of art in a gallery, do you question what you see or feel the need to go into deeper insight? If you answered yes, join Education Assistant Antonio Paone for a tour of the exhibitions designed to activate your curiosity and engage your attention. The tour is free with the cost of admission.

January 28, 2025 at 5:30 pm | Public Programs

"Getting” Contemporary Art: The Garden of Promise and Dissent, part one

Join us for “Getting” Contemporary Art led by Kristen Erickson, art history teacher and Director of the Luchsinger Gallery at Greenwich Academy.

February 15, 2025 at 1:00 pm | Third Saturdays, Free Admission, Group Tours

All Ages Discovery Tour

Have you ever looked at contemporary art and wished you knew what it meant? Have you ever entered a museum without knowing where to start? If you answered yes, this free, interactive, and judgment-free tour of our current exhibitions guided by a Museum Educator is perfect for you!

February 19, 2025 at 1:00 pm | Group Tours

Seniors-Only Tour

Join us for this in-person gallery tour of highlighted works from our current exhibitions, guided by Education and Access Specialist Holly Lapine, reserved specifically for senior adults ages 60 and above!

February 23, 2025 at 2:00 pm | Group Tours

Sunday Afternoon Sessions

Are you curious about the world of contemporary art but unsure where to begin? When you view works of art in a gallery, do you question what you see or feel the need to go into deeper insight? If you answered yes, join Education Assistant Antonio Paone for a tour of the exhibitions designed to activate your curiosity and engage your attention. The tour is free with the cost of admission.

April 26, 2025 at 6:00 pm | Special Event

The Aldrich Gala in the Garden

Celebrating Artist Maren Hassinger and Governor Ned Lamont and the State of Connecticut


Related Products



Top image: Martha Diamond: Deep Time (installation view, left, High-C, 1982, Collection of the Martha Diamond Trust; right, Palisades, 1982, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME, Gift of Alex Katz, 1986.048), The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, November 17, 2024 to May 18, 2025. Photo: Jeffrey Jenkins Projects