Now 104 years old, Cuban artist Carmen Herrera discovered the secret of long life in her youth: she painted every day. “It makes me feel good,” she told The New York Times, her choice of words and actions just as succinct as her art. Though Herrera is now confined to a wheelchair, she hasn’t stopped pursuing her passions or finally getting the recognition she deserves.
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Earlier this summer, Herrera’s first-ever public art installation opened in New York’s City Hall Park. The show, “Estructuras Monumentales”, features five large-scale monochromatic aluminum sculpture first conceived in the 1960s. The seven-decade-long career of the Havana-born painter is a model of patience, endurance, and poise.
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Born in Havana in 1915 to a pair of politically active journalists, Herrera began her career studying architecture before leaving school to marry American school teacher Jesse Loewenthal in 1939. When they moved to New York, Herrera already believed her true destiny was to pursue a life in art. “I knew it was going to be a hard life,” she told The Guardian, but she remained focused, disciplined, and unmoored by the politics of the industry.
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