Equilibrio, 2017

Carmen Herrera explores geometric shapes and the relationship between color and form. 

An American-Cuban Minimalist artist, Carmen Herrera received acclaim much later in life, but is now considered a central figure in geometric abstraction. Since her first collaboration with ULAE in 2017, she has continued to create vibrant color and crisp lines in the form of lithography, intaglio, and aquatint with chine collé.

Equilibrio is a striking intaglio that plays with positive and negative shapes. The composition is based off of an earlier painting titled Equilibrium. Herrera pulls from the visual imagery of her sculptures and paintings over the last five decades. She never ceases to captivate the eye and inspire.

Carmen Herrera (1915-2022) was born in Havana, Cuba. She moved frequently between France and Cuba throughout the 1930s and 1940s; having started studying architecture at the Universidad de La Habana, Havana, Cuba (1938–39), she trained at the Art Students League, New York, NY, USA (1942–43), before exhibiting five times at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France (1949–53). She settled in New York in 1954, where she continues to live and work. Herrera’s paintings were the subject of a large-scale survey at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, USA (September 2016—January 2017) and prior to this, a selection of Herrera's recent paintings inaugurated Lisson Gallery's recently-opened New York exhibition space (2016). She has also had solo exhibitions at Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, Germany (2010); Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2009); and Museo del Barrio, New York City, USA (1998). She has been included in the group shows 'Post War: Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic 1945-1965', Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2016); ‘Order, Chaos and the Space Between’, Phoenix Museum of Art, Arizona, USA (2013); and ‘The Geometric Unconscious: A Century of Abstraction’, Sheldon Museum of Art, Nebraska, USA (2012). She was awarded two fellowships from the Cintas Foundation, New York, USA (1966–68) and a grant by the Creative Artists Public Service, New York, USA (1977). Her work is in numerous public and private collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA; the Tate Collection, London, UK; the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC, USA; The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC, USA; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA; and the Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL, USA.