An overdue evaluation of the life and work of a prolific and significant contemporary artist

Cuban-born artist Carmen Herrera (b. 1915) has painted for more than seven decades, though it is only in recent years that acclaim for her work has catapulted the artist to international prominence. This handsome volume offers the first sustained examination of her early career from 1948–78, which spans the art worlds of Havana, Paris, and New York. Essays consider the artist’s early studies in Cuba, her involvement with the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in post-war Paris, and her groundbreaking New York output, as well as situate her work in the context of a broader Latin American avant-garde art. An essay by Dana Miller considers Herrera’s New York work of the 1950s through the 1970s, when Herrera was arriving at and perfecting her signature style of hard edge abstraction. Personal family photographs from Herrera’s archive enrich the narrative, and a chronology addressing the entirety of her life and career features additional documentary images. Over 80 works are illustrated as color plates, making this book the most extensive representation of Herrera’s work to date.

Distributed for the Whitney Museum of American Art

Exhibition Schedule:

Whitney Museum of American Art
(09/16/16–01/02/17)

Wexner Center for the Arts
(02/04/17–04/16/17)

Contributions by: Serge Lemoine, Gerardo Mosquera, Edward J. Sullivan, Monica Espinel