Carmen Herrera

The definitive publication on Cuban-born artist Carmen Herrera's (born 1915) Estructura works, this volume contains new works as well as sketches, plans, installation photographs from the exhibition and an essay by the curator of her recent traveling retrospective, Dana Miller.

As three-dimensional extensions of the artist's stark, bright abstract paintings, the Estructuras were envisioned by Herrera in an environmental sense, using the surrounding walls as a part of the composition. These irregularly shaped works technically remain her only monochromes; however, Herrera envisions the white of the wall exposed in the negative space of the sculptures and wall pieces as the second color. Herrera began executing the works in 1969 but abandoned them two years later after the death of her carpenter. These works marked an important moment in Herrera’s career, wherein the forms move from drawing to painting and sculpture, and her meticulous sharp edges are physically manifested.

This publication highlights a selection of works by Cuban American artist Carmen Herrera (born 1915) from the past decade. At 105 years old, Herrera has developed her signature geometric style over the course of decades spent in New York City and postwar Paris, as well as her hometown of Havana; however, it was only in the early 2000s that she began to receive acclaim for her work. The origins of her process trace back to her early studies in architecture at the Universidad de La Habana in Cuba from 1938 to 1939. She often credits this training as where she learned to draw and to think abstractly, stating, “I wouldn’t paint the way I do if I hadn’t gone to architecture school.” While Herrera’s process is often characterized by meticulous constraint and distillation of color and shape, it is perhaps best described as a perfect synergy of artistic and scientific creativity.