At last, centenarian’s work on view
BY GABE HERMAN
A new outdoor exhibition at City
Hall Park features sculptures by
a 104-year-old local artist who
has only recently started to get recognition
in the art world.
Carmen Herrera was born in Havana,
Cuba, in 1915, and has lived in
New York since the 1950s. She has created
abstract paintings for more than
70 years, often focusing on the beauty
of straight lines and simple geometric
forms.
The concepts were infl uenced by her
architecture studies in Havana in the
1930s, according to the exhibition’s curator,
Daniel S. Palmer of the Public Art
Fund.
The artwork in Lower Manhattan is
called “Estructuras Monumentales.”
It’s the fi rst major exhibition of outdoor
sculptures by Herrera, and is based on
sketches she started doing in the 1960s.
There are fi ve sculptures, each a large
work of painted aluminum, each with
its own shape and distinct meaning.
One piece, “Untitled Estructura
(Red),” (1962/2018), features two multisided
lines that seem to interconnect
and confront each other. The work’s description
says it could refer to the 1962
Cuban Missile Crisis and the confl ict
between Herrera’s adopted country of
the U.S. and her native Cuba. During
the confl ict, Herrera and her husband
helped loved ones and refugees to escape
the confl ict.
Another piece, “Pavanne,”
(1967/2017), while from a distance,
looks like one big piece of blue metal,
is actually three pieces that interlock
together.
The work was conceived by Herrera
as a tribute to her younger brother,
“Untitled Estructura (Red),” (1962/2018), by Carmen Herrera.
Mariano, who was dying of cancer. The
title references a musical term for a slow
processional dance that has funereal
overtones.
“This is such a special opportunity
for us at Public Art Fund to work with
an artist like Carmen Herrera,” said the
curator Daniel S. Palmer in a Public Art
Fund video discussing the exhibition,
“to share her powerful work with the
entirety of the city and the world.”
The fi ve sculptures are spread around
in different parts of City Hall Park and
will be on view until Nov. 8.
PHOTO BY GABE HERMAN
PHOTO BY GABE HERMAN
“Estructura Verde,” (1966/2018), by Carmen Herrera.
PHOTO BY GABE HERMAN
“Amarillo Tres,” (1971/2018), by Carmen Herrera.
Schneps Media TVG August 15, 2019 19