At the age of 103, the Cuban-American artist Carmen Herrera is still producing minimalist work that's avant-garde enough to draw a gasp. 'Estructuras', her new show at the Lisson Gallery in New York, features three-dimensional pieces that are all about colour and contrast.
These are sculptures for the wall - and the wall in question becomes, for the artist, part of her compositions. At the Lisson, they form a beguiling colour environment, set against the white surfaces and polished concrete floors of the gallery's Chelsea location.
Herrera is old enough to be one of the pioneers of minimalism, along with the painter Barnett Newman and the sculptors Carl Andre, renowned for his floor-based tile pieces and Donald Judd, whose large-scale metal sculptures are exercises in colour and shape.
Carmen Herrera was originally a painter. She recognised that her work was "really crying out to become sculpture". In the late 1960s a carpenter helped her realise this vision and some of these earliest experiments are in the new Lisson show.
The fresh work melds with the old to form a remarkable installation that is effectively a meditation on the very nature of colour. Essential and inspiring.
Be sure to visit Lisson Gallery New York, 504 West 24th Street, to view Carmen Herrera ‘Estructuras’ before the exhibition closes on the 27th October 2018.
In other art news, check out our interview with creative German duo Zebu.
