Martha Diamond in the Whitney Biennial

Review

By Ilka Scobie. Photo by Luigi Cazzaniga. In COVER Magazine, Summer, 1989 issue.

Whitney Biennial

This year's Whitney Biennial features a record number of women artists, including Martha Diamond. Her three paintings, Red Light, Three Lights and World Trade Center provide a welcome vibrancy in a largely monochromatic, low-key show.

Martha Diamond's recent one woman show at Robert Miller Gallery in 1988 was well received. A prolific painter and printmaker, she is known for her simplified and exaggerated cityscapes, evocative of German expressionism, though her latest work is moving toward more pure, abstract canvases.

Working from small canvases, Diamond paints freely, in wide motion. The initial studies allow her to "figure out what it's going to be, and pay attention to how to paint.”

Martha Diamond is a New York City native and long-time downtown resident. Her vigorous abstractions reveal disciplined power and a new urban vision.