Carmen Herrera
| Carmen Herrera | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 31, 1915 Havana, Cuba |
| Nationality | Cuban-American |
| Known for | Painting |
| Style | Minimalism |
| Movement | Abstract Expressionism |
Carmen Herrera (born May 31, 1915) is a Cuban-American abstract, minimalist painter. She was born in Havana, has lived in New York City since the mid-1950s and has recently had a later-in-life work recognition in international circles. She turned 100 in May 2015.[1]
Early life
Born in Havana in 1915, Herrera grew up as one of seven siblings. Her father was the founding editor of the newspaper El Mundo, and her mother a reporter at the paper.[2] Herrera has lived in France, Cuba and the USA, moving frequently throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Returning to Cuba from Paris around 1935, Herrera studied architecture.[3][4] She met in 1939 English teacher Jesse Loewenthal, when he was visiting from America,[5] married him and then settled in New York in 1954, abandoning her degree course.[4]
Work
Herrera's work has great precision and is highly reminiscent of Barnett Newman and Leon Polk Smith. She was a contemporary of many abstract expressionist artists - most notably, Wifredo Lam and Yves Klein[5] but since she painted in relative obscurity, remained unknown until her later years. Her works, viewed in light of the time period they were painted in, are important milestones in the evolution of the geometric minimalism movement. After six decades of private painting, Herrera sold her first artwork in 2004 when she was 89 years old.[5] Herrera has said of her work, “I do it because I have to do it; it’s a compulsion that also gives me pleasure.”[5]
Collections
In 2004 Agnes Gund, President emeritus of the Museum of Modern Art, bought several works by Herrera and donated one of her black-and-white paintings to Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).[5] The Tate Modern in London, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. have also acquired her works.
Exhibitions
Herrera exhibited several times at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles beginning in 1949.[6] The El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem, New York, mounted a first exhibition of Herrera's work in 2008. A retrospective exhibition opened in July 2009 at the nonprofit IKON Gallery in Birmingham, England, and travelled to the Pfalzgalerie Museum in Kaiserslautern, Germany in 2010. In the fall of 2016 Herrera will have her first museum retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art.[7]
Film
Beginning in 2014, film director Alison Klayman worked on a documentary about Herrera.[8] This documentary, The 100 Years Picture Show—starring Carmen Herrera, premiered in 2015 at the Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto.[9]
References
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- ↑ Helena de Bertodano (20 December 2010), Carmen Herrera: 'Is it a dream?' The Daily Telegraph.
- ↑ Hermione Hoby (21 November 2010), Carmen Herrera: 'Every painting has been a fight between the painting and me. I tend to win' The Guardian.
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- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links
- The 100 Years Show website, about Carmen Herrera turning 100 years old by film director Allison Klaymen
- Slideshow of Carmen Herrera's artwork, from a New York Times article dated December 20, 2009
- At 94, She’s the Hot New Thing in Painting, a New York Times article about Carmen Herrera dated December 19, 2009
