Esteban Vicente

Esteban Vicente (1903-2001) was one of the important Abstract Expressionist and Color Field painters, whose long career placed him within the inner circle of artists at the electrifying heart of the postwar New York art scene. Vicente possessed an unerring sense of abstract composition, based on his own distinctive style, carefully balanced and reflecting an innate elegance at bold scale. His mature work is notable for the absence of any trace of anxiety or aggression, and one is sometimes reminded of the potential influence of Helen Frankenthaler's stained canvas landscapes of the 1950s. Yet Vicente adds his own sense of ease and the serenity of an artist who has given his all over the years and could then slowly and deliberately create stylistically independent, continuously evolving work. He left behind a lifetime body of paintings that may be seen as a sequenced series of canvases persistently exploring the effects of light and the subtle differences of applied structure.

Born in Turégano, Spain, Vicente fled the country during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and relocated to New York City, where he quickly became an integral part of the artistic community reshaping the postwar American art scene. Sharing a studio with Willem de Kooning, Vicente actively engaged with Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman, participating in the celebrated gatherings at the Cedar Tavern and becoming a voting member of The Club, the essential meeting place for the Abstract Expressionist painters.

Vicente's professional standing was confirmed by his participation in the pivotal exhibitions of the era. He exhibited in 1950 at the Kootz Gallery in New York in the historic Talent 1950 exhibition, and the following year at the then radically avant-garde Ninth Street Art Exhibition that first announced Abstract Expressionism to the wider public. He was represented at various points by such influential galleries as Leo Castelli, Andre Emmerich, the Charles Egan Gallery, and Sidney Janis.

In 1991 Vicente received a Gold Medal for Fine Arts from King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía of Spain, a distinguished recognition from his native country. At the end of his life, a museum was opened in his honor. Vicente was present for the opening of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente in Segovia by the Spanish government in 1998, and a street was even named after him near his birthplace in Turégano. He lived out his days in Bridgehampton, New York.