Cuban-born New York painter Carmen Herrera, 94, is heading toward limelight. A Deborah Sontag feature story about her reports that she sold her first painting five years ago, at age 89. Since then, her career trajectory is straight up.
The Observer of London called Ms. Herrera the discovery of the decade, asking, “How can we have missed these beautiful compositions?”
It’s easy. Artists who would shine if those in charge of a significant stage managed to notice them exist all over the world. The interesting question is not why she was overlooked but why she’s being noticed now. Turns out, the factors that held her back – being female, an immigrant and a practitioner of a style that was not in style – are the same ones working in her favor at this late date, when there’s a serious focus on both Latin American female artists and Herrera’s particular niche, geometric abstraction.
When it comes to geometric abstraction rooted in the early 20th century, neglected artists are thick on the ground. An obvious candidate for more attention is Seattle’s Mary Henry, who died in May at age 96.
From my obit:
For her, abstraction was a clarifying order of interlocking rectangles, horizontal stripes, lumbering squares and powerful wedges. Her color choices leaned toward the bracing. Yellows tunnel through whites and hang over orange. Her blacks shine, and her blues are
deep as the sea.
Field of Silence, 1990 Acrylic on canvas, 72 x 60 inches.
Baden Baden, 2002, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches
Seattle writers who, like myself, were unable to interest the wider world in her work include Matthew Kangas, Jen Graves, Gary Faigin and Elizabeth Bryant, the latter not linkable online.
Graves:
Henry’s paintings are alluring and unyielding, and I figure she’s the only way into them.
Fortunately, that’s not true. Henry’s gone but her paintings are still here, available for viewing at Howard House, which has a goofy Web site. You have to follow the links to get to her. The paintings, not the artist who made them, offer the best route into themselves.
Neglected abstract geometric artists are plentiful? Are you talking about painters who deserve to be well known? Name five. Not just anybody, but somebody who has created work that could stand up to international attention. The artists at the top aren’t there by luck. They are better than the obscure. I’ve never heard of Mary Henry. Her work looks pretty good online, but online is nowhere as you must know. There must be a reason why it doesn’t fly when seen in person. If not, it would have.