Lisson Gallery is currently hosting a mesmerizing exhibition of Carmen Herrera’s paintings on paper, showcasing the artist’s prolific output from the last decade of her illustrious career. The retrospective offers a unique glimpse into Herrera’s meticulous process, highlighting her mastery of color, form, and geometric precision. The exhibition, titled “Carmen Herrera: Paintings on Paper,” runs from March 7 to April 13, 2024.

Born in 1915, Carmen Herrera dedicated over eight decades to exploring abstraction through minimalist principles. Educated in Havana and Paris, Herrera’s architectural background significantly influenced her artistic journey. This retrospective focuses on works created within the final ten years of her life, offering a comprehensive survey of Herrera’s dedication to her craft.

Herrera’s paintings on paper reflect a three-part process, where she initially crafted rough sketches with rulers and colored markers. These sketches were then transformed into formal acrylic paintings, serving as fixed compositions. Some evolved into scaled-up canvas paintings, while others underwent further modifications in color, structure, and orientation. This methodology reveals the artist’s commitment to a lifelong process of purification and refinement.

A standout aspect of the exhibition is Herrera’s exploration of color. Notable works like “Untitled (2018)” employ two colors, marking a return to her Parisian years and adding depth to her iconic dichromatic style. The signature pairings of yellow and green or white and black also make a prominent appearance, showcasing the artist’s consistent themes throughout her seven-decade career.

One compelling work, “Untitled (2012),” presents a slender, horizontal arrangement of black rectangles mirroring each other, emphasizing Herrera’s approach of continual iteration and refinement. This piece, a variation of a canvas painting from 1970, underscores the artist’s ability to distill color, shape, and structure to their essential elements over the years.

The solo standing sculpture on display “Tres (Orange), (1971/2019),” adds a third dimension to the exhibition through which you undoubtedly enter the world of the artist. Her dedication to simplicity and refinement echoes throughout her lifetime of work, with each stroke embodying tension, purity, and aliveness despite its mathematical precision.

The tension between symmetry and asymmetry is a recurring theme in Herrera’s oeuvre, evident in the dynamic compositions featuring sharp zigzags, wedges, and rectilinear forms. The interplay of positive and negative space, achieved through opposing planes of color, showcases Herrera’s keen eye and deftness of hand. These paintings on paper capture the moment when a composition becomes “fixed,” attesting to the artist’s skill in distilling infinite possibilities to their essence.

Carmen Herrera: Paper Paintings at Lisson Gallery is a compelling and visually striking exhibition that pays homage to Carmen Herrera’s enduring legacy which once again leaves us with the artist’s own statement: “I Never Met a Straight Line I Did Not Like”.

Lisson Gallery
Carmen Herrera: Paintings on Paper
From 7 March – 13 April 2024
504 West 24th Street
New York

Opening Times:
Tuesday – Saturday: 10:00am – 6:00pm