December 16, 2009

Carmen Herrera, Arte Al Dia

Carmen Herrera - IKON - Birmingham - Reviews

By MONICA ESPINEL – It has been a sweet moment for Carmen Herrera, who at 94 has deservedly witnessed her work gain visibility, on this occasion in a stunning retrospective at Ikon, flawlessly curated by Nigel Prince. In a trove of six decades of works one could follow Herrera’s journey towards applying the less-is-more aesthetic, constantly pushing painting’s limits. Going from densely populated to moderately bare canvases, from biomorphic, gestural forms to sensual, minimal geometries, she underwent a kind of two-by-two progression of energy, distillation and physicality. The dazzling colors, flat surfaces and clarity of design Herrera developed over a half-century ago led her to precocious achievements that anticipated the optical and hard-edge minimalism of the 1960’s. The show started off with a bang. A jazzy gallery of works produced in post-war Paris during the late 40’s and early 50’s included the lyrical Les Liex #29 (1949), delineated abstractions of clustered shapes and chromatic harmonies and paintings from her expressionistic, gritty Habana series (1950-52). These hotly colored works were succeeded by a cool room of black and white paintings that revealed how by 1952 Herrera had honed her sensibilities. The lines straightened, the energy maximized, the imagery minimized and the paintings became robust through Herrera’s filter. The palette’s austerity was countered by razor-sharp shapes and lines that vibrated in places with formal tension, creating a resonance and impact evident in the rhombus-shaped Black and White (1952), and in Escorial (1974) and Avila (1974), which anchored each end, bringing the space into focus with a distinct visual snap. Next you could marvel at the labyrinthine spaces in one of her wittiest and freest paintings, Links in a Chain (1953). Its deep violet, black, teal and lilac lines rhythmically collide, creating a fluttering geometry at once torrential and rational.

Upstairs, a vibrating gallery was so loaded with energy that, as you waled around, the room seemed to stand up and hom. Impressively, two-toned paintings from the 50’s were as fresh as works from the 90’s. Blasts of dizzy color, clean lines and emotional power were given space to breathe in Herrera’s sublime geometry. The landmark painting Green and Orange (1958) exemplified this and presented an intimate interpenetration between figure and ground. Herrera’s deceptively simple compositions presumed her audience was attuned to her subtleties. Yet simplicity is never easily achieved, as seen in sketches from 1969-7- in the adjoining gallery of works on paper. Slight variations made to the position or length of a line changed the drawing’s cadence, revealing the process of Herrera’s carefully modulated geometries and her exquisite sense of proportion. Next was a balanced installation of wood structures, which grew out of her exploration on the interrelationship of painting with sculpture. The show culminated with a group of spare paintings whose piercing spatial qualities conveyed lightness and divulged Herrera’s interest in architecture. Blanco y Verde (1959) was an ethereal abstraction in which a single swath of green floated high in a sweepingly white space, pointing upward, inviting viewers to take flight and be touched by the apex of her offkilter minimalism. Equally bold and refined, the great condor and passion presented in Herrera’s unambiguous pictures was palpable here. Here trajectory has been arrow-straight. This wonderfully infectious exhibit confirmed it and was a valuable spur to future study.