Two months ago I saw my first Carmen Herrera painting – Blanco y Verde. It was on display at the Whitney Museum as part of the Spilling Over: Painting Color in the 1960s exhibit. A squat, wide tip aimed into a white background. Look at it long enough and the green triangle looks like a cutout. Or an applique. Either way it’s pointing (or pulling) you into an opaque space.
I saw the below painting, Equilibrio, at the Met during the same trip. This piece as a downward pull. Three perfect black triangles digging into the canvas. Or six wedges reaching from the sides like a rib cage. Are the colors tearing things open or holding things in?
Herrera is about symmetry and order. Minimal shapes and repetition. The 2015 documentary, The 100 Years Show, on Netflix covers her life in Cuba, development as a contemporary artist and commercial success in her eighties. She’s now over 100 years old and still creating art. These two pieces in New York caught my attention but she won me over in the documentary. “I like a battle but I don’t like to get hurt but I like a battle.”
The Jam 