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.

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):

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

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.

Esphyr 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.