Modern Painters

CARMEN HERRERABLOUINARTINFO.COM JUNE/JULY 2016MODERN PAINTERS 91``````Toronto’s Eglinton Gallery, notes Espinel, whohas been poring through the artist’s archives inadvance of the Whitney’s fall exhibition.Major success was elusive, though the oft-citedlegend that Herrera didn’t sell a painting until theage of 89 is, however well-intentioned, totallyfalse. Still, it’s true that despite intermittent shows,her career didn’t take off until a series of galleryexhibitions in the aughts—at Frederico SèveGallery in New York, Ikon in Birmingham in theU.K., and Lisson in London. What took so long?Besides the obvious gender prejudice, Lisson’s AlexLogsdail cites the “very complicated” obstacles ofbeing a Cuban-American in the 1960s and beyond.Partly, in Espinel’s eyes, Herrera’s resurgence inthe past decade also aligns with a renewed interestamong institutions (and collectors) in LatinAmerican abstraction.Herrera may be a centenarian, but her processdoesn’t seem to have changed all that muchsince she found her groove in the middle of the20th century. As Logsdail describes it, it involvesa wealth of preparatory labor. “The way she worksis very surgical,” he says. “Everything is plannedcarefully, and the execution of the painting isn’tthe most important part. This perfect image hasDOUHDG\EHHQUHÀQHGDQGGHÀQHGRYHUWKHFRXUVHof making sketches, followed by drawings, and thenpaintings on paper.” Herrera’s morning routinestill involves rising early to sketch with coloredmarkers. At this stage in her life, the physical actof painting, using rollers on large canvases, iscarried out by an assistant whom she shares withartist Tony Bechara, a close friend and supporter.Herrera’s Lisson Gallery show focuses entirely onworks made since 2014, but it also loops back tothe past in the form of Beacon II, 2016, based onphotographs of a painting from the ’60s whosecurrent location is a mystery. The newest worksare bold, and quite large—several are triptychs.Despite critics’ often characterizing her work as beingFRQFUHWHXQWHWKHUHGWRÀJXUDWLYHHOHPHQWVLQWKHsurrounding world, many of these canvases suggestotherwise—from the beckoning aperture in Portal,2014, to the angular white peaks of Alpes, 2015.At the Whitney, Herrera’s exhibition ispurposefully framed as a survey of a particulartime, and not a comprehensive retrospective. “Ithink the show is deeply meaningful to her,” notesexhibition curator Dana Miller, “but she also justwants to be left alone to paint. It’s funny: Carmengenuinely wanted recognition, from peers, critics,and a public, but I don’t think she was ever interestedin fame. She wanted her work to be appreciatedand evaluated on the same level as [that of] any male,nonimmigrant artist. She doesn’t want to beknown as a Cuban painter, a female painter, or anold painter.”Herrera’s perseverance despite that lackof widespread recognition speaks to her own self-FRQÀGHQFH)RU\HDUVWKHOLRQ·VVKDUHRIVSDFHLQher New York apartment was taken up by paintingsin storage; clearly, there’s no longer such a surplusof unsold work. “She’s always spoken of the sense ofliberation that came along with being ignored,”Bechara tells me. “Carmen was free to pursue herDUWDVVKHVDZÀWZLWKRXWQHHGLQJWRSOHDVHanyone but herself.” MP``````Carmen and Jesse in front ofBeacon, a painting whosecurrent whereabouts is unknown. Using a differentcolor combination, Herrera created a new version ofthe work, Beacon II, 2016, on view in an exhibitionof her recent creations at L isson Ga l ler y i n New York.ca.1965