Esteban Vicente

Art Brokerage: Esteban Vicente Spanish-American Artist: b. 1903-2001. Esteban Vicente was a first-generation abstract expressionist artist whose work represents some of the most brilliant experimentations with color and space in post-war American painting. Born in 1903 in Turegano, Spain, Vicente arrived in New York in 1936, a time when social realism and American scene painting dominated the art scene. Vicente, however, looked to the work of American modernists Milton Avery, Arthur Dove, John Marin, Marsden Hartley, and Joseph Stella for inspiration. Their explorations of abstract form had a profound effect on his work. Vicente also held high regard for Hans Hofmann, especially his emphasis on the personal characteristics that painted forms and colors on canvas could convey. During the 1950s, Vicente explored collage, integrating the analytical cubism of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Juan Gris into works that were highly keyed and animated. He also admired the way Willem de Kooning would destroy and rebuild his work. Collage allowed Vicente to explore this idea through placing and replacing forms on cardboard or canvas. Later in the decade, Vicente fully embraced the tenets of abstract expressionism. His abstract vocabulary predates the luminous floating forms of his friend Mark Rothko. Although highly independent in his own work, Vicente had frequent exchanges with members of the New York School, including Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler.