A Jaw-Dropping Show Gives Martha Diamond Her Due A review of the artist's exhibition at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

By Will Heinrich 

Martha Diamond didn't exactly work in obscurity. A downtown painter who died last year at age 79, she went to college with the critic Peter Schjeldahl, credited the painter Joan Mitchell with changing her practice during a 1970 studio visit and had an early fan in Alex Katz. Her prescient painting of the twin towers as two plumes of smoke was even included in the 1980 Whitney Biennial. But the recognition she enjoyed was never quite in proportion to her achievement, and we can only hope that "Martha Diamond: Deep Time" a small but jaw-dropping survey now at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, will be the first step in her ascent into the upper reaches of art history.