Smithsonian American Art Museum
Welcoming Carmen Herrera, American Artist

Take a stroll through the Lincoln Gallery on the third floor of the American Art Museum and you will encounter a striking new acquisition: Carmen Herrera's Blanco y Verde from 1960.

Blanco y Verde

The Museum's Curator for Latino Art, E. Carmen Ramos, gave us some insights into this work. Below is an excerpt; visit the museum's blog Eye Level for the full conversation.

When I first arrived at the Museum last year, acquiring a work by Carmen Herrera was top on my to-do list. I've always been intrigued by how European immigrant artists in the United States quickly get absorbed into an American art historical narrative, and artists like Herrera never quite lose their foreignness. By placing Herrera's work in our collection, we are now able to emphasize her ties to her adopted country, where she has lived for over 70 years.

 

I'm overjoyed that Carmen Herrera is finally in the company of her peers. Blue on WhiteWe purposely installed her angular Blanco y Verde across from Ellsworth Kelly's amoebic Blue on White (1961).  These two canvases allow visitors to see the different ways artists of the same generation fused color and shape. Interestingly, both works share similar titles that refer to color-albeit written in different languages. Kelly's title suggests that one color floats on top of the other, and Herrera's implies colors coming together, either side by side or intersecting. Clearly, Herrera formed part of a larger group of artists in the United States and abroad that were deeply committed to abstraction and experimentation. Now our visitors can see the beautiful fruit of her labor.

  

 

Carmen Herrera's work will be featured in our 2013 exhibition, Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art. This is more than a year away, but there's no reason not to mark your calendars now!

 

 

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Smithsonian American Art Museum
P.O. Box 37012
Washington, D.C. 20013
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