Before settling in New York in the mid 1950s, Carmen Herrera transformed her practice from biomorphic to geometric abstraction during a five year stay in Paris (1948-1953). Work from that time at Lisson Gallery in Chelsea sees her experimenting with variations on each style not in a linear progression toward purged form but rather with a varying vocabulary of geometric and curving shapes. Seen here, the largest piece she’d made to date, Early Dynasty’ (1953), employs just two colors in a play between foreground and background shapes that creates lively spatial complexity. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 1st).
