The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

In 1972 he visited the 268 Bowery studio of Martha Diamond. She would occupy the live/work loft up until her death in December 2023. In the early 1970s, Diamond began making her first mature works, energetic all-over acrylic paintings on paper and canvas, inspired by Chinese brush painting. She referred to them as “abstractions suggestive of landscapes” and “lyrical abstraction [but] a little tougher.”* These works captured Aldrich’s interest to such a great degree that he purchased a sizable painting from her during their first visit. The seven-by-six- foot acrylic on canvas painting, Untitled, 1972 marked Diamond’s first museum acquisition.

Aldrich presented the painting in Diamond’s breakout debut, Contemporary Reflections 1972–73, the second in an annual series inaugurated in 1971 to spotlight emerging artists with no gallery representation and no one-person show yet. The works included were all acquired directly from the artists’ studios. The 1972–73 edition featured Colette, Jackie Ferrara, Ree Morton, Richard Nonas, Mary Oberling, Freddy Rodriquez, Michelle Stuart, and many others, who like Diamond would go on to have significant careers. Aldrich bought another painting from Diamond, a year later, Untitled, 1973. It would be included in three more exhibitions throughout the 1970s and 1980s at the Museum. Now in the Museum’s 60th anniversary year, Untitled, 1973 will make its return as one of the earliest works in Deep Time, a sweeping survey of Diamond’s work, co-organized with the Colby College Museum of Art; an indicator of the power of institutions to launch artist’s careers and the legacy of Larry Aldrich’s visionary quest to support living artists.

— Amy Smith-Stewart, Chief Curator

* From a slide lecture by Martha Diamond at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in 1983.