“Donald Martiny’s bold pieces drew my attention for their unique visual impact, which owes partly to their scale, but also to their daring focus on a single pigment. Martiny’s work is pure; it is painting at its most elemental, composed of a single medium, a single gesture, a single colour. Martiny sits in a line of tradition from Malevich to Rodchenko through Newman and Stella. But, this is paint and painting laid bare, off the canvas, and uncomplicated by storyline, personality, politics or even historical context. In Martiny’s hands, paint becomes structural. As such, his work becomes an expression of the power of the paint medium, and suggests possibilities for alternative use. Donald Martiny’s work forces us to question the established definitions which form the backbone of our understanding of painting as both a pursuit and a product, and of paint as a medium. In challenging the viewer in these ways, it is not only visually exciting but intellectually invigorating.”

–Deborah Swallow, Märit Rausing Director of The Courtauld Institute of Art, London