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Esphyr Slobodkina

Honoring the Life and Art of Esphyr Slobodkina

Esphyr Slobodkina was a pioneer of American abstract art. Her participation in the avant-garde activities and exhibitions of the 1930s & 40s helped achieve recognition for abstract art in the United States.

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1960s – A Continuing Tradition of Geometric Abstract Art

Although Slobodkina’s work in the 1960s could be considered geometric abstraction—it is defined by clear, hard edges painted between geometric shapes—it remained closer to Cubism with its overlapping planes of color. She may have been influenced to some extent by the size and scale of hard-edge painting and Minimal Art, but she continued to work independently, outside the parameters of these movements.

Her captivating painting Triptych in Old Rose, 1964, combines three panels to create a larger painting, but the overlapping forms and eccentric shapes do not suggest the simplified and often much larger, hard-edge paintings of Kenneth Noland, Ellsworth Kelly, and Frank Stella.

Next: 1970s – Drastic Changes

History / Chronology

  • 1920s – The Beginning
  • 1930s – Towards the Abstract
  • 1940s – Slobodkina’s Work Gains Attention
  • 1950s – A Classic Among Abstractionist Painters
  • 1960s – A Continuing Tradition of Geometric Abstract Art
  • 1970s – Drastic Changes
  • 1980s – Rediscovered as a Pioneer of American Abstract Art
  • 1990s – Still Going Strong
  • 2000s – Final Years
  • Chronology

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