A rendering of Pavanne (1967/2017)
© Carmen Herrera, Lisson Gallery and Public Art Fund
The Cuban-American artist Carmen Herrera will have her first public art exhibition this month in New Yorks City Hall Park. The show, Estructuras Monumentales, features five large-scale monochromatic aluminium sculptures, ranging from 7ft to 12ft tall, that “evoke a thoughtful and reflective experience in the historic park”, says Daniel Palmer, the associate curator of the non-profit organisation Public Art Fund, which commissioned the project.
The seven-decade-long career of the Havana-born painter, aged 104, includes stints in France and Cuba before she settled in New York in the mid-1950s. Herrera struggled to gain recognition in the art world, selling her first painting at 81 and having her first major museum show, at New Yorks Whitney Museum of American Art, aged 102.
The show is a “dream project” for Herrera, according to Palmer. The sculptures are based on 1960s archival drawings; three are being realised for the first time, while two were shown recently by Lisson Gallery. One, Pavanne (1967/2017), named after a Renaissance funeral dance, was conceived as an ode to Herreras late brother.
The exhibition also brings to light a little-known facet of Herreras background. In 1938, she studied architecture at the University of Havana and although she left after a year, “that foundation in architecture is visible in both her sculptural drawings and as an organising principle in her paintings”, PRead More – Source
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