Donald Martiny

Written By uzomah ugwu for Arte Realizzata

Donald Martiny is an American Contemporary painter and fine artist, who is known for his use of color in his abstract paintings. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in art galleries and art spaces such as the Conny Dietzschold Gallery, the Cameron Art Museum, the Diehl Gallery, Market Art + Design Hamptons, and many more. His work is held in collections such as the Grahm Gund Family Foundation, One World Trade Center, the Newcomb Art Museum, and elsewhere. Martiny has lectured at Cornell University and at the Ackland Art Museum. His artwork has received press and been in publications internationally, most recently he has been featured in Architectural Digest. I had the pleasure and honor to ask Donald what has been his most challenging project as of yet, what drew him to making abstract art, and how he hopes people feel when they see his art.

You may not be able to eat in Gwyneth Paltrow’s dining room or hang on Oprah's Montecito patio, but with more A-list decorators branching into restaurant interior design, you can tap into the style of the stars. Many designers best known for the celebrity projects in their portfolios have recently expanded to projects at eateries around the world. It’s an opportunity to showcase to a wider audience their prowess in pattern mixing, furniture and art sourcing, and creating a mood where you want to linger long after the final course. Because restaurants, of course, are about more than just design. These spaces also serve as places to gather for cocktails or enjoy delicious food. Below, we gather some examples of spaces where you can indulge in style.

Congratulations Donald Martiny on the recent acquisition of 3 works on paper by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Ft. Worth, TX

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art was established through the generosity of Amon G. Carter Sr. (1879-1955) to house his collection of paintings and sculpture by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell; to collect, preserve, and exhibit the finest examples of American art; and to serve all communities through exhibitions, publications, and experiences devoted to the celebration of American creativity.

Whitehot Magazine | Disclosures: Donald Martiny, or Figures Without Ground

By DONOVAN IRVEN, November 2020

The art of Donald Martiny exists somewhere between painting and sculpture. We are confronted with a singular brushstroke, huge, a seemingly spontaneous, lavish eruption of color and texture on the wall. It is the mark distilled from painting, the formerly minute detail writ large, what we usually discover as a hidden and obscured part of the whole is made to be the whole itself, the entire work a gesture on the wall. 

Such dramatic works are fit for public art – Martiny is currently preparing to install a large work on the exterior of a building in Raleigh, North Carolina and is well known for his permanent displays in the lobby of One World Trade Center in New York City. But they also lend themselves to powerful aesthetic experiences in more intimate galleries, as will be evident in upcoming solo shows in March 2021 at the Scala del Bovoli in Venice, Italy.

Front Burner: Highlights in Contemporary North Carolina Painting

March 7, 2020 – February 14, 2021

East Building, Level B, Joyce W. Pope Gallery, North Carolina Museum of Art

 Throughout modern art history, painting has been declared dead and later resuscitated so many times that the issue now tends to largely be ignored. Despite any debate over painting’s viability, artists continue to persevere in keeping the medium fresh and new. Currently painting is enjoying a revival in the art world, and innovative North Carolina artists are helping to maintain its vibrant place on the front burner.

View images of our recent collaboration with Wecselman Design at One Park Grove, Miami.

This stunning model unit includes work by Lluis Barba, Stanley Boxer, Lynn Chadwick, Dan Christensen, Max-Steven Grossman, Jane Manus, Donald Martiny, James Austin Murray, Udo Noger, Ernest Trova, Tigran Tsitoghdzyan and Bernar Venet.

Donald Martiny will participate in the inaugural Summer Residency at Tivoli New York sponsored by the Pfaff Foundation, Judy Pfaff, and M. David & Co, Michael David.

Judy Pfaff, who was born in London, received her MFA from Yale University where she studied with Al Held. Her work spans across disciplines from painting to printmaking to sculpture to installation. She has work in the permanent collections of MoMA, Whitney Museum of Art, Tate Gallery, Brooklyn Museum of Art, and Detroit Institute of Arts, among many others. She is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center, the MacArthur Foundation Award, and the Guggenheim Fellowship. Pfaff lives and works in Tivoli, NY.

Michael David has exhibited with Sidney Janis Gallery and M. Knoedler & Co. His work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, The Brooklyn Museum, The Houston Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles among many others. Additionally David has established and directed two successful galleries in Brooklyn: Life on Mars and M. David & Co.

Azure Development's $2,190,000 show house in Delray Beach hosts thirteen artworks from Sponder Gallery's roster of important artists.

Artists Include:

Stanley Boxer, Dan Christensen, Max-Steven Grossman, Kysa Johnson, Jane Manus, Donald Martiny, James Austin Murray, Udo Noger, Tigran Tsitoghdzyan and James Walsh

Dynamic Sublimity:  Donald Martiny's Brushstrokes by Donald Kuspit

Initially in Turner, Delacroix, and the Barbizon School, the brush stroke was made more noticeable, and this appearance was to increase under impressionist.  The imitative or descriptive function of painting was increasingly diminished by the growing prominence of the physical substance of which a painting is made, the paint...Finally the whole brush stroke leaps forth dramatically in the work of van Gogh.

The brush stroke now becomes for the first time a distinct, separate unit of artistic expression.
James Mann, Beyond Post-Modernism:  Manifesto of Vandalism(1) We call that sublime which is absolutely great.  Beauty is connected with the form of the object, having boundaries, while the sublime is to be found in a formless object, represented by a pointlessness.

Best known for his ‘frozen’ brushstrokes, Donald Martiny’s large scale abstractions manage to be both sculptural and painterly, while somehow effecting the action of performance art. It is no wonder then that Open, Martiny’s latest solo exhibition on view till January 2nd at the Dimmitt Contemporary Art in Houston, continues the artist’s exploration of the "gesture," which is made to exist forever in the present. Katarina at ARS sat down with the artist to talk contemporary culture, artistic influences, and the surprisingly delightful taste of a blue crayon.

KATARINA: Your newest show at the Dimmit Contemporary Art is called “OPEN,” which the curator writes is a reference to “the action of the viewer, rather than the object itself.” For all your viewers out there, what do you think we can all be a little more 'open' to and why?

Frost Tower Fort Worth has commissioned artist Donald Martiny to create a unique work of art for the building’s ground floor lobby. Martiny’s work is internationally known for its unique approach to painting in which standard rectilinear canvases are forgone in favor of a form that is defined by large-scale brushstrokes. Swaths of paint many feet in length construe works that obscure the line between painting and sculpture, inviting viewers for closer inspection and a more dynamic interaction with a work of art. At 14 by 17 feet, the commissioned work must be created on-site, requiring the artist to set up a temporary studio in the lobby at 640 Taylor Street where he will create the piece over the course of a week beginning on November 18th.

Donald Martiny was included amoung the artists were commissioned to create 54 artworks for Nortstrom's new flagship location in NYC. The Art@Nordstrom app will provide customers with an audio-guided tour of the store’s collection.The Nordstrom NYC Flagship represents the biggest and best statement of the brand, and largest single-project investment in Nordstrom history. Located on West 57th Street and Broadway, across from the Nordstrom Men’s Store, which opened in April 2018, customers can shop 320,000 square feet of retail space located on seven levels – two below street level and five above. 

Nordstrom, Inc. is a leading fashion retailer based in the U.S. Founded in 1901 as a shoe store in Seattle, today Nordstrom operates 382 stores in 40 states, including 117 full-line stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico; 249 Nordstrom Rack stores; three Jeffrey boutiques; two clearance stores; six Trunk Club clubhouses; and five Nordstrom Local service concepts. Additionally, customers are served online through Nordstrom.com, Nordstromrack.com, HauteLook and TrunkClub.com. Nordstrom, Inc.'s common stock is publicly traded on the NYSE under the symbol JWN.

See SPONDER GALLERY artists's work on view inside this lavish show house in Hudson Valley, NY.

Artists include Steven Alexander, Dan Christensen, Christine Federighi, Donald Martiny, Ben Schonzeit and Boaz Vaadia.

View Images HERE

The Ferruccio Lamborghini Museum narrates the life of Ferruccio through his mechanical creations and a vast archive of family’s photos. This place, conceived and founded by the entrepreneur Tonino Lamborghini to celebrate his father, was inaugurated in 2014. Their permanent collection now includes a painting by Donald Martiny.

Inside 9,000 sqm. the Museum holds all the industrial productions of the Doctor of Engineering (Hon. Causa) Lamborghini, from the first Carioca tractor which started his company in 1947, to the most important tractors of the ‘50s,’60s and ‘70s. An emotional journey will let you admire Ferruccio’s personal cars collection, like the fabulous Miura SV, and many other famous cars, like the Fiat Barchetta Sport, modified to participate in the 1948 Mille Miglia competition, the futuristic Countach, Jarama models, Urracos and the Espada with seagull wing doors that inspired the car of the Back to the Future movie.

The Museum will also offer you a glimpse of two special stories: the helicopter prototype and the 11-times world champion Fast 45 Diablo Class 1 offshore boat, 13.5 meters long with Lamborghini engines. The reconstruction of Ferruccio’s first office at Lamborghini Tractors company with his personal effects, official documents and photos of the period will help you discovering not only his life, but also the story of his family and of the people who worked for his companies during the Italian economic boom in the late ’50s-‘60s.

It's been a long process getting an interview going with Donald Martiny. Not because he's is difficult to contact but because it takes me a while to think of the right questions to ask such a complex artist. I had the pleasure of meeting Martiny at my weekly Whitehot Magazine Art Party that happens every Tuesday night at the Jane Hotel Roof Bar in New York City. Martiny is an intelligent, warm individual who has obviously spent many years studying and perfecting his work. I've spent time with Frank Stella and I hold Martiny in the same regard as a modern master in the making. The following conversation took place aproximately one week before I met him at my party. 

Where are you from?

I was born in upstate New York in the early 50s. My family lived in a small split-level house nestled in the middle of an orchard near Ballston Lake.

When did you discover art?

The first art that I remember being aware of was the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Grant Wood which was printed in a repeat pattern on the upholstery of our living room couch. That fantastic imagery was mesmerizing to me and as spellbinding and entertaining as any storybook or film. By the time I was in my early teens we had moved to Holland, Michigan and I was devouring every art book I could get my hands on. At fourteen I began making day trips on my own to the Art Institute of Chicago via Greyhound bus, something no parent would tolerate today.

January 26 - February 20, 2019 | 6215 South Flagler, West Palm Beach, FL

Sponder Gallery participated in the 2019 edition of the Kips Bay Showhouse in West Palm Beach, Florida. Works by Dan Christensen, Jane Manus, Donald Martiny, Ernest Trova and Larry Zox are in view in spaces designed by Leanne Yarn, Andres Paradelo and Amy Meier.

Each year, celebrated interior designers transform a luxury Manhattan home and a Palm Beach residence into an elegant exhibition of fine furnishings, art and technology. This all began in 1973 when several dedicated supporters of Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club launched the Kips Bay Decorator Show House to raise critical funds for much needed after school and enrichment programs for New York City children. Over the course of four decades, this project has grown into a must-see event for thousands of design enthusiasts and is renowned for sparking interior design trends throughout the world. The Show House receives as many as 15,000 guests annually from across the nation. Since its inception, the Show House has raised over $21,000,000 for Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club, which currently reaches over 10,000 young people at nine locations throughout the Bronx. Today, the club is proudly one of the most prominent and responsive youth development agencies in New York City and a “flagship” of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. 

Read Donald Martiny's recent Lynda Benglis interview in the March/April issue of Artists on Art Magazine.

Baker Sponder Gallery is pleased to announce that Donald martiny will have a solo exhibition at the Alden B. Dow Museum of Science and Art. The show will be on view September 24 - December 31, 2016

Sponder Gallery is pleased to congratulate artist Donald Martiny on the 

completion of two site specific paintings for the One World Trade Center lobby.