Donald Martiny installing Moment at Palazzo Bembo | Photo credits: Chiara Dalla Rosa
Moment by Donald Martiny at Palazzo Bembo | Photo credits: Federico Vespignani
Lorna York: The opportunity to exhibit in Venice as part of Personal Structures during the 59th Venice Biennale was very important to us as the world came out of a global pandemic. It was a time to celebrate and really view and see the works that many artists had created during this time. Personal Structures at Palazzo Bembo was a beautiful location along the grand canal with its history and unique Venetian grand rooms to display Donald’s work.
ECC: You’ve been working with Donald Martiny for several years now, why was it important to present his work in Venice?
LY: It was important to present Donald's work since his gestures and abstraction go beyond the boundaries of most art as we know it which usually requires the boundaries of canvases and stretcher bars. Venice is a place to show innovative artists like Donald to 80,000 viewers. It is important to us, as his representing gallery, to give him such a large scale platform and showcase his work to a wide international audience.
LY: Donald is known for his large scale installation works. He has two large scale works in One World Trade Center NYC and countless private corporate and personal collections. Donald was not able to make this work on site thus the challenge consisted on the fact that the work had to be shipped from his US studio, boated and reassembled on the second floor of Palazzo Bembo.
Donald Martiny: When I created MOMENT for Palazzo Bembo I was thinking about how to invite the visitor into the work, to immerse the viewer and help them become involved in an active way rather than a passive way with the work. A few references from art history occurred to me. The 13th century Master of Naumburg, placed the crucifix on the floor among the congregation forcing them to confront the crucifixion from the point of view of the Romans who placed Christ on the cross; Tintoretto’s MirMiracle of the slave, in which St. Mark flies above viewers of the painting, involving “us” into the scene; and Caspar David Friedrich’s marvellous painting Monk by the Sea, with his use of the Rückenfigur.
DM: I believe it was the Leipzig artist Hans Hartung who, if not the first was one of the first, to isolate and explored the gesture and mark-making as a complete statement. Mark-making is movement and motion; movement is life. My artworks are made in a way that I can freely make a bold gesture with paint and the gesture defines the form of the artwork. Perhaps a bold analogy would be how poetry was constructed before Walt Whitman, using formal verse with a strict meter and rhyme. Whitman decided to break free of the constrictions of formal verse and used free verse. With my artworks, I decided to move away from the restrictions of predetermined forms, e.g., rectangles, circles, etc., and want the work itself to define the form.
DM: In my mind what Wassily Kandinsky was talking about when he made that statement was that art comes from deep within us. Children begin to learn to speak and write with simple names of things, e.g., tree, dog, ball. As we mature and become more sophisticated adults we learn to talk about abstract ideas, complex, and subtle feelings. Kandinsky wanted to go further than depicting the image of an object. He needed abstraction to explore visual ways to express, beyond the limits of verbal communication, the vibrations of our soul.
DM: Perhaps I already answered that. It is important for me to strive to be inventive and innovative with my work while maintaining a strong connection and dialogue with meaningful art of the past. I see art as an ongoing conversation. To keep it interesting, one must bring new ideas and challenges, but at the same time, we need to remain coherent.
You can visit Donald Martiny's installations at Palazzo Bembo until the 27th of November or discover his work by exploring the virtual tours online. Discover more about the gallery and artist on his profile online or website.
Cookies are used on this website to improve performance and make your experience better. By continuing you indicate your consent to our use of cookies.
