Solo Exhibition: Tristan's Chord at Madison Gallery

Madison Gallery presents TRISTAN’S CHORD, Donald Martiny’s 4th solo exhibition with Madison Gallery, so titled for the opening phrase of Wagner’s opera, Tristan and Isolde. This collection consists of multi-components, harmonizing in minimal, tonal work and made of polymer and pigments. The disposition of the material and the demonstration of the drawing of the line are like muscular acts that present themselves. Roland Barthes referred to this type of self-presentation of the material process-based nature of artistic gestures as ‘scription’. The materiality of the gesture—from density to color scheme—is not there to be overcome reflexively: it is the inextricable means of artistic debate. In other words, ‘matter’ (material) that matters (theme).

“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 February 2021 at Madison Gallery in Solana Beach, California and in March 2021 at the Scala del Bovoli in Venice, Italy.

How did Martiny come to these oversized gestural works? Normally, the canvas frames the work, or else is itself framed, and the plane delineated by the canvas’ edge creates the ground from which a figure will arise. Sometimes the figures are strictly representational of human forms, of flora and fauna, and other times we are treated to compositions suggestive of moods, abstract expressions of a concept or emotion and so on. Whatever the content, whatever level of literalness present within the edges of the canvas, there is something that stands out from the ground of the canvas. The canvas itself sinks into the background and by becoming this background makes it possible for whatever appears to the viewer to appear. But there is no canvas to form the ground of Martiny’s work. The wall on which the work is mounted becomes the ground, the room itself, the gallery or museum is the ground.” - Donovan Irven of White Hot Magazine

---

Donald Martiny, TRISTAN’S CHORD
Solo Exhibition at Madison Gallery, Solana Beach, CA
Feb 27, 2021 - Apr 30, 2021

Installation shot at Madison Gallery: Kansa (2017)

On the right wall: Kansa, 2017 (Polymer and dispersed pigment on aluminum), 91 × 6 in (231.1 × 15.2 cm)

Pittura a Macchia - Opening Night on February 18

Madison Gallery presents Donald Martiny’s second solo exhibition, Pittura A Macchia. The title refers to the disparagement of Italian Renaissance Master Titian’s late career works as “patchy pictures” or pittura a macchia. Up until Titian’s years, artists aspired to create smooth and unbroken surfaced compositions. This influenced an important shift in art history that centered on the physiological connection between artist and material.

As art critic and writer Ann Landi acutely stated, “up close the visible brushstrokes bring us nearer to the artist because they are such clear evidence of a hand following the dictates of the mind and eye.” Martiny’s work concentrates on the importance of the brushstroke as a real means of connection between artist and material.

In his own words: “because every gesture in the painting does something different. I realized that the architecture of the brushstrokes was as important to the painting as other elements, like color and drawing.” Said brushstrokes are big, lush, exuberant sweeps of pigment that are neither paintings nor sculptures, but hover in a space all their own.

The artist employs pigments, polymer and gallons of paint, sometimes between 30-40 at a time, to create the right color and viscosity to produce each individual composition. He not only utilizes wide brushes and sponges, but also uses his hands and body in order to create a harmonious choreography. He creates a gap between painting and sculpture and rejects the two-dimensional canvas or panel to establish a relationship between space and viewer.

Happy New Year! Looking forward to 2017

#TBT Exhibition Preview at Madison Galleries, La Jolla, CA

Gestural Abstraction (detail)

Photo by @kingcullt

Private Client Commission, US, through Madison Gallery

"Gorgeous Donald Martiny commission installed for very happy clients. They selected the perfect form and color combination and the artist brilliantly brought it to life". Madison Gallery

Placement in Private Collection, US by Madison Gallery

"When a square just isn't the shape you see in your home, there is Donald Martiny. Donald's thick gestures create life, color and movement on the wall." Madison Gallery

Gestures at Madison Gallery

In a world that is more and more removed and isolated, where finding contact and gesture and movement, both abstract and emotional, is increasingly difficult, Donald Martiny's expressively lyrical solo, Gestures, at Madison Gallery in La Jolla, California is refreshingly immediate.

One is instantly struck by the work's visceral movement and vibrant color. But it would be too easy to reduce these forms to simply a discussion of color and flow. These enlarged brushlike strokes, formed from polymer and saturated pigment, are visual poems. They are the painterly equivalent of a verbal haiku, deceptively lean, but on reflection as complex as breath. The simplified structure allows the viewer to look deeper. The swaths of undulating paint, dotted with streaks of hidden color and seemingly random trace gesture, draw us closer, enticing us with their history. And the sensual , almost liquid quality of the forms woos us, like the touch of someones hand on bare skin, light but electric, the movement fleeting but the sensation enduring. The touch simple in form but resonant in understanding. That sensation is rare in this world of detachment. But as these paintings attest, and as has been said many times, "the simplest gesture is the most profound." It is indeed.