Hidden Red
Artist: Esphyr Slobodkina (American, 1908-2002)
Date: about Late 1930s
Dimensions:
Frame: 40 1/2 × 44 1/2 × 1 1/4 in. (102.9 × 113 × 3.2 cm)
Medium: Oil on masonite
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Gift of the Woodward Foundation, by exchange
Object number: 2005.108
Label Text:Following the Russian Revolution, Esphyr Slobodkina immigrated to New York in 1928 and immersed herself in the New York vanguard artistic scene. In 1933, Slobodkina married fellow Russian immigrant and abstract painter Ilya Bolotowsky (see a painting by Bolotowsky in this gallery), who fostered her engagement with abstraction. The two would go on to help found the American Abstract Artists (AAA) in 1936.
Slobodkina had an early interest in collage (which is how she illustrated the now classic children’s book she authored in 1940, Caps for Sale), which is evident in Hidden Red. Here she layered painted forms like a cut-paper collage, creating an evocative, Cubist-inspired composition that explores a flattened pictorial space that seems almost three-dimensional.
Slobodkina had an early interest in collage (which is how she illustrated the now classic children’s book she authored in 1940, Caps for Sale), which is evident in Hidden Red. Here she layered painted forms like a cut-paper collage, creating an evocative, Cubist-inspired composition that explores a flattened pictorial space that seems almost three-dimensional.
On view
In Collection(s)