ArtScene / Visual Art Source

February 2013 Issue

Review of Donald Martiny exhibition at George Lawson Gallery, LA, written by Cathy Breslaw.

Donald Martiny's recent paintings are monochromatic works whose medium is a mixture of polymer and dispersed pigment.  Though he calls them paintings, they appear much like sculptures, as each one is a three dimensional, very physical representation of a brushstroke.  Here, painting is both the subject and content of the work, examining and exploring the anatomy of the size dimensions, and contours of an individual stroke of the brush.  Each work depicts a particular motion of the brush, giving each gesture an individual character, shape and identity.  Martiny's color palette is limited to the use of primary red, yellow, green or blue.  The sole variation on the theme of the brush stroke is size.  the works are either very large (83" x 45") or much smaller.  A large work like "Pigeon Lake" not only occupies much more space, but is more effective in portraying the visual detail, marks, and nuances that a brushstroke creates.  Te sum of the parts here is greater than the whole- echoing the manner in which each brushstroke has key significance in the developmnent of a painting.  And every painting is created with intention, one stroke at a time.
(George Lawson Gallery, Culver City).

Donald Martiny interviewed by Matt Schaefer      January 2013

MS:  So Donald, where was your last show?

DM:  I am showing currently in LA at the George Lawson Gallery.  Prior to that I showed at the Marlboro Gallery at Prince George Community College near Washington DC.

MS:  What are these made of?

DM:  They are a polymer mix and dispersed pigment.

MS:   How did you arrive at this point?  What was the "eureka" moment"?

DM:   I was struggling with my work.  I made a lot of de Kooning look-a-likes but got frustrated with the structure.  I would make grand gestures and then went back and tried to fix the edges and corners.  One day I just got rid of the ground (canvass). It took a while to figure out what I had done.  It freed the gesture to be what ever it wanted to be.   I think Ellsworth Kelly and Frank Stella were in the back of my mind.

MS:  Who else art historically were big influences?

DM:  I look at painting and sculpture a lot.  I used to travel quite a bit and whenever I did I always made time to visit museums and galleries.  I am a big fan of Velazquez.  I also looked a lot at the oil sketches by Rubens at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.  Obviously I also admire de Kooning, Lynda Benglis Ellsworth Kelly and Frank Stella, among others.

MS:  So are these representations of actual markings in paint?

DM:  No, absolutely not.  They are my own honest gestures.  I am not representing the gestures of other artists.

MS:  Let me rephrase.  Do you build these after smaller scale models?

DM:  I usually begin by making many small studies on paper.  Then I make small works based on the sketches.  These are finished works but they also work as maquettes or prototypes for larger works. When I work large I have a basic idea of color, feeling and shape but they never end up finally exactly as I had planned.   

MS:  Pretend you are talking to someone who has no idea about how to understand abstraction. In a few sentences, how would you guide them into understanding your work?

DM:  I simply want to create my own images rather than use existing images that may have baggage.  I want the images to speak for themselves rather than paint an actor.  I know I can paint a figure or landscape that feels a certain way.  But why not be more direct.  Rather than use the landscape, let  the painting itself evoke the feeling or experience. 

Selected Work

Untitled 2012  

20Hx14W inches

Wren 2013   

Witbek  2009

Roland 2012

Arden 2012

Ellsworth 2012

George Lawson Gallery LA
Donald Martiny Selected Paintings
January 4-February 2, 2013

Donald Martiny makes single-color works in polymer medium and dispersed pigment that free themselves from the traditional painting support to form large brush strokes directly against the wall. They are paintings made exclusively out of paint. In many aspects they present a formal mix of Roy Lichtenstein’s brush stroke paintings, Lynda Benglis’ knotted wall pieces and Ellsworth Kelly’s shaped monochromes, but with an attenuated physical presence all their own. Martiny’s high relief flirts with sculpture, yet his working method and his conceptual focus ground these works firmly in the principles of fundamental painting. Martiny, who currently lives and works in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, studied at the School of the Visual Arts and The Art Students League in New York, New York University and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. His work is in private collections in Philadelphia, Washington DC, Amsterdam, San Francisco and Los Angeles.