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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.

  • About the Founder
  • Fine Art
    • Art Through the Decades
    • Essays
  • Children’s Books
  • Educational Programs
  • Caps for Sale Series
  • Exhibitions

Art of Esphyr Slobodkina on display at LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico

December 30, 2019

Esphyr Slobodkina: Groundbreaking Painting, Collage, and Sculpture

December 27, 2019 – February 15, 2020

Esphyr Slobodkina 60 Year Survey

Celebrated as a fearless and dedicated artist over the course of her 70-year career, Esphyr Slobodkina was a pioneer of early American abstraction, an often-controversial art movement that brought ideas from European modernism into American painting during the 1930s and ‘40s. Displaced by the Russian Revolution, Slobodkina immigrated to the United States and immersed herself in the New York art world, co-founding the legendary American Abstract Artists (AAA).

More Information on the LewAllen Gallery Website

Click Here to View Digital Catalog of Exhibition

About LewAllen Galleries

LewAllen is frequently cited by major collectors and curators as one of the finest galleries in the nation. Gallery exhibitions are often the subject of reviews and profile coverage in leading art magazines such as ARTnews, Art in America, and Artforum as well as in local and regional publications. LewAllen enjoys a significant following among corporations, public art spaces, museums, and prominent private collectors in whose collections the works of its represented artists appear.

​LewAllen Galleries
1613 Paseo de Peralta
Santa Fe, NM 87501

505.988.3250
info@lewallengalleries.com

​Monday – Friday 10 AM – 6 PM
Saturday 10 AM – 5 PM
Sunday By Appointment Only

Filed Under: Announcements

Exhibit at Museum of Fine Arts Boston: Women Take the Floor

November 15, 2019

September 13, 2019–May 3, 2021
Art of the Americas Wing, Level 3

Women and Abstraction at Midcentury

This gallery takes an expansive look at abstraction, exploring how women artists reshaped the natural world for expressive purposes in a wide range of media including paintings, prints, textiles, ceramics, furniture, and jewelry.

Among the artists featured in this space are painters Carmen Herrera, Esphyr Slobodkina, and Maud Morgan and designers Greta Magnusson-Grossman and Olga Lee, as well as Claire Falkenstein, Laura Andreson, Margaret de Patta, and others who contributed to the development of the studio craft movement.

Visit exhibit web page.

Filed Under: Announcements

Esphyr Slobodkina Featured in Arts & Antiques Magazine

November 14, 2019

Esphyr Slobodkina will be featured in the Winter 2019-20 edition of Arts & Antiques.

Esphyr Slobodkina: Known to millions as a children’s-book author and illustrator, the Russian-born artist was an important contributor to abstract painting and an early member of the American Abstract Artists group. In this issue, we explore Slobodkina’s life and work.

Read the announcement here (download PDF):

 

Filed Under: Announcements

New Caps for Sale Website!

September 24, 2019

We have released our new Caps for Sale website dedicated to children and educators.

Caps for Sale Website

The site is interactive including moving monkeys, “click-on caps” that take one to many things to do and learn, downloadable teaching guides and printables for children and a research center to learn about Esphyr’s life, How Caps for Sale was born, even monkeys of the world.

We have contests and are planning “live” readings of the stories.

We are working with website developer Peter Ingersoll (ingersollinteractive.com), who has volunteered many hours of his time to help us in this exciting undertaking.

Filed Under: Announcements

Featured in Sotheby’s Ahead of their Time: Remarkable Women of American Art

July 25, 2019

Seagull painting by Esphyr SlobodkinaEsphyr Slobodkina is featured in Ahead of their Time: Remarkable Women of American Art by Halina Loft, July 23, 2019.

The article is posted on the Sotheby’s website. Slobokina’s work Seagull is currently on display and up for auction at Sotheby’s.

Read the full article here.

Filed Under: Announcements

Recent Article in The Paris Review

May 1, 2019

The Paris Review recently published an article How Not to Be Forgotten By Lauren Kane (May 1, 2019).

Subtitled: On the legacy of Esphyr Slobodkina, one of America’s first abstract artists. 

Please read the full article on The Paris Review website.

Filed Under: Announcements

Upcoming Exhibitions

April 26, 2019

SANTE FE, NE MEXICO – Lewallen Galleries will be including selected works of Esphyr Slobodkina in two exhibitions taking place this fall and winter and one solo retrospective later in 2020. More information coming this summer.

KANSAS CITY MISSOURI – The Rabbit hOle, “The World’s First Explor-a-Storium,” is a future cultural institution for children’s literature and they invited us to participate in the venture. A dedicated space in the Explor-a-Storium is being designed to feature not only the Caps for Sale book series, but also,Esphyr Slobodkina’s life and art. The Caps for Sale room will be one of the first Explor-a-Storium exhibits lined up for production.

Filed Under: Announcements

New Release August 29, 2017: Caps for Sales and the Mindful Monkeys

August 19, 2017

NEW RELEASE COMING AUGUST 29, 2017

The New York Times bestselling and beloved Caps for Sale series by renowned illustrator Esphyr Slobodkina continues with the all-new release, Caps for Sale and the Mindful Monkeys!

Following More Caps for Sale, this funny and thoughtful read-aloud is inspired by The Elves and the Shoemaker. Here, the monkeys prove to the peddler that while they may be mischievous, they can also be very helpful.

Those playful monkeys who wore the peddler’s wares in Caps for Sale just won’t leave him alone. As he walks through the streets selling his caps, the monkeys follow behind him, and as he walks back home at the end of the day, they trail along too. All in step. The peddler is tired of their trouble, but when he asks his friend Essie for advice, she thinks he should give them one more chance before deciding they’re no good. So when the peddler must go out of town to attend to a sick friend, the monkeys have a surprise in store for his return, showing that they might just be more mindful than they appear.

A review can be found at:

Publishers Weekly: Caps for Sale and the Mindful Monkeys Book Review

A book signing and story presentation will take place on Saturday, October 21, 2017, from 2-4:30 p.m. at Rizzoli Bookstore in Manhattan.

Filed Under: Announcements

New Website Released

August 25, 2016

We are excited to release our new website design. We are committed to keep the site updated and engaging. Please let us know if you have any suggestions to make our website better.

Filed Under: Announcements

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