Carmen Herrera, who sold her first painting at the age of 89, was mostly unknown and unseen until 2009, when a large-scale survey of her work opened in the U.K. and she was deemed "the find of a decade" by the Observer. Herrera's geometric, hard-edged abstract paintings, influenced by her university degree in architecture and singularly focused on the interactions of space and color, prefigure the Op Art and Minimalism of artists like Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, and Kenneth Noland. Herrera exhibited with Josef Albers, Sonia Delaunay, and Jean Arp in postwar Paris but could not gain a foothold after moving to the U.S. amid the peak of Abstract Expressionism. She was a close friend of Abstract Expressionist Barnett Newman.
Back in the 1950s and '60s, Carmen Herrera was making art, but her male counterparts were getting all of the attention. Now, at 101, she's still hard at work, and finally getting some long overdue recognition. Written when she had her first show at the Tate.
For most of her career, Carmen Herrera's paintings of brightly colored geometric shapes went unnoticed, while her male counterparts — Barnett Newman, Ellsworth Kelly and Frank Stella — got plenty of attention for similar work. Herrera finally made her first sale at 89. And now, at 101, it seems she's getting her due at last. The Cuban artist's work can be seen at the Tate in London, MoMA in New York, and she has an exhibition coming to the Whitney Whitney Museum of American Art in September.
Tears streamed down Herrera's face as she viewed her art on display at a recent show at the Lisson Gallery in Manhattan. The 13 paintings and one sculpture were her first solo exhibition in the U.S. in nearly 10 years. NPR
https://www.theartstory.org/artist/herrera-carmen/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Herrera
https://www.theartstory.org/artist/herrera-carmen/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Herrera
