Ortman studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts, Berkeley, California, at Atelier 17, New York, and at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Art, New York. In Paris he attended the Atelier Andre L'Hote. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1965 and a Ford Foundation Grant in 1966. He has had a number of solo exhibitions including those at Middlebury College, Vermont (1969); the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiania (1971); the Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (1981); and the Hill Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan (1992). His paintings can be found in the permanent collections of most major New York museums, such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Guggenheim Museum of Art; and in Washington, D.C, at the National Museum of American Art.
Ortman has served on the faculties of the School of Visual Arts, New York (1960-65); New York University (1963-65); Princeton University (1966-69); Honolulu Academy of Arts (1969-70); and the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (1970-1992). He resides in Newark, New Jersey.
