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Esphyr Slobodkina: The Enduring Appeal of Abstraction
Esphyr Slobodkina, Crossroad #2, ca. 1942-5, Oil on fiberboard, 43 ½ x 33 ½ in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Patricia and Phillip Frost.
By Bryan Barcena
As an artistic style, abstraction has demonstrated a kind of uncanny ability to continually recapture the inspiration of both artists and viewers. This infinitely universal approach to expression in many ways functions as a void, template or vehicle onto which we foist not only our perception but also our desire to see into ourselves. The quintessential artistic calling card of modernity, the abstract, was and continues to be the instrument for a fiercely individualistic society that constantly seeks introspection. With as many flavors as there are practitioners, abstraction is a rich landscape, which is further deepened by the presence of Esphyr Slobodkina.
A Russian émigré, Esphyr Slobodkina was part of a pioneering generation of artists who gave American art its own singular voice and pioneered the kind of bold freedom of expression that would be captured in the post-war period. Relocating to New York, following a period of turbulent relocations and upheavals in Russia, Slobodkina banded together with WPA artists to become part of a new and daring aesthetic. No doubt inspired by much of the Suprematist and Constructivist work that she had seen in Russia and also the work of earlier cubists such as Picasso and Braque, Slobodkina began showing her decidedly bold geometric style in both galleries and museums from 1937 all the way until her death in 2002.
Slobodkina’s work truly represents what can be described as the classic elements of geometric abstraction that at times lean toward the figurative but more often exhibit a purist concern for shape, color, form and space. The colors are bold and flat, yet also dynamic in their ability to seem fluid as they intertwine and mingle with neighboring shapes. These forms exist not to inspire narrative or to merit half-hearted stabs at figurative description; instead, they are exercises, compositions of elements, experiments in the basic forms of expression. These oils on canvas are not, however, cold or devoid of humanity: they contain a sense of organic, warmth and playfulness, an exuberant energy almost as if color and shape were thrown into space and allowed to arrange themselves. We find that these ambitions come to pass when we look at Slobodkina’s sculptural oeuvre, which brings these shapes and forms into real space. These compositions in 3-D space are more machine-like in nature but still maintain a preoccupation with shape, line, filled spaces and voids.
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Esphyr Slobodkina is also well-recognized as a children’s book illustrator, most so for her award-winning book “Caps for Sale,” which is described as having brought modernism into the picture book. Selling millions of copies and contributing to over 20 books in various editions, it is reasonable to deduce that countless many have had their first taste of modernist artistic expression through the work of Slobodkina.
The protagonists of Slobodkina’s work are not, in fact, part of a narrative that she herself has strived to express. Throughout her career, she has given us, the viewers of her work, a chance to use her voice as a vehicle for our own, to use the tools inherent in her work to explore our own consciousness and play out the narratives that we ourselves are constantly trying to make true.
“Esphyr Slobodkina: Rediscovering A Pioneer of American Abstraction” was exhibited at The Naples Museum of Art from October 2nd through December 27th, 2009.
Bryan Barcena is a graduate of the University of Michigan specializing in Art History and Latin American Studies. He is the Assistant Director of Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery, in Miami
