Carmen Herrera: Lines of Sight

A circular geometric artwork featuring triangles and squares in black, white, and vibrant yellow, arranged in a balanced composition.

“I believe that I will always be in awe of the straight line; its beauty is what keeps me painting.”

I love this statement by Carmen Herrera. I feel a deep connection to it and understand her obsession. I had never heard of Herrera until a fellow artist friend saw some of my three-dimensional forms and suggested I look at her paintings. He noticed a similarity between my sculptural shapes and her painted geometry.

That conversation led me to the Whitney Museum’s 2016 exhibition book, Carmen Herrera: Lines of Sight. Through its detailed color plates and essays, I discovered her precise world of lines and color, and how a single shape could take on so many different lives.

The Whitney Museum gave Herrera her first major museum exhibition in 2016, when she was 101 years old. Overshadowed by her contemporaries for much of her seven-decade career, she simply kept painting. As Adam D. Weinberg writes in the foreword, “Being an artist is a commitment to the process of discovery, making, and invention. It is often a slow, confusing, difficult, and psychologically challenging endeavor. It takes tremendous grit, courage, and persistence, and the ability to sustain one’s efforts in the face of intense criticism—or worse, little or no recognition. It’s not for the faint of heart.”

Her paintings contain the essentials: geometry pared down to its most necessary components, color used not expressively but structurally, and a constant attention to balance. The work feels confident without being loud. It doesn’t require interpretation so much as it draws you in and asks you to slow down and look.

Here are a few paintings from her Blanco y Verde series. Herrera uses the same shape as a starting point, working through variation as color and placement become tools for testing balance and tension. The result is multiple outcomes from a single form.

Abstract geometric artwork featuring a deep green background with intersecting white angles and a central square.

Photo via: artnet

A large, diamond-shaped abstract artwork with a white background and green triangular accents pointing inward at the top.

Photo via: Artsy

A minimalist artwork featuring a sharp green triangle centered on a stark white background, creating a striking contrast.

Photo via: artnet

Abstract design featuring angular green shapes on a minimalistic white background, creating a dynamic and modern aesthetic.

Photo via: Whitney Museum

The same shape appears here as both an architectural drawing and a sculptural form, showing how Herrera moves between two and three dimensions.

Line drawing of two warped rectangular prisms, one above the other, connected by angled edges. The shapes create a sense of visual tension.

Two green, rectangular sculptures are mounted on a white wall, slightly offset from each other. The minimalist design conveys a modern, abstract tone.

Photo via: Lisson Gallery

Another aspect of her work I find especially interesting is how, in some works, Herrera uses two canvases for a single painting. The seam between them becomes part of the composition, subtly shifting how we perceive shape, space, and the painting as an object.

Two black and green geometric paintings side by side. Each canvas has a sharp-edged green shape in the corner against a black background, creating a modern, abstract feel.

Photo via: Lisson Gallery

A geometric artwork featuring a large white triangle on a green background and a green triangle on a white background, creating a symmetrical design.

Photo via: Lisson Gallery

A rectangular abstract painting features a bold orange horizontal stripe across a blue background, intersected by a diagonal line, creating a dynamic and vivid contrast.

Photo via: Lisson Gallery

A bright red background with a central white, triangular shape pointing upwards. A thin vertical line extends below it, creating a minimalist and bold composition.

Photo via: wikiart

Another perceptual shift: from a distance, this work reads as two canvases. Up close, the division comes from a painted edge, subtly altering how we read the form.

A blue square is rotated to appear diamond-shaped, featuring a thin, horizontal white line bisecting it. The background is a plain white surface.

Photo: Artforum

Close-up of a blue, textured wall sign with a white diagonal stripe. The stripe ends in a pointed, three-dimensional edge, casting a light shadow.

Here are few other of my favorites:

Abstract artwork featuring geometric shapes. Left side: vertical black, purple, white sections split by a triangle. Right: two large purple triangles on black, white background. Framed by a bold pink border.

Photo via: Artforum

Abstract painting featuring a white trapezoid with a diagonal line across it, set against a black background. The tone is minimalist and geometric.

Photo via: Artsy

A geometric abstract painting featuring a red four-pointed star centered on a black background. The star's pointed arms extend horizontally and vertically.

Unless noted, photos of paintings are from Carmen Herrera: Lines of Sight.

I really love what she spent her life doing, and I’ve learned a lot from how she stayed committed to line. It’s amazing what she could do with such simple elements.

References

Miller, Dana. Carmen Herrera: Lines of Sight. Whitney Museum of American Art, 2016.

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