Blanco y Verde

Carmen Herrera, Blanco y Verde, 1960, acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2011.27A-B, © 1960 Carmen Herrera

Exhibition Label

Herrera, who left her native Cuba for New York City in 1939, is best known for crisp, geometric canvases produced during and after a productive five-year sojourn in Paris (1948-53). Even though Herrera felt excluded from the commercial art scene, she interacted with fellow American artists Barnett Newman and Leon Polk Smith, who were also creating geometric works. In Blanco y Verde, Herrera constructed a series of pressure points where green triangles meet the edge of the canvases, or butt up against each other to create an even larger triangular form that opens up pictorial space. The result is a dynamic work that invites viewers to decipher the shifting relationships between color and form.

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, 2013

Title

Blanco y Verde

Artist

Carmen Herrera

Date

1960

Location

Not on view

Dimensions