Luchita Hurtado – Dark Years

For more than seventy years, Luchita Hurtado has explored connections between the body and its larger context – nature, the environment, the cosmos – in an effort to express universality and transcendence. In her work, abstraction and figuration merge to mystical effect. Her multicultural life and career are reflected in the eclectic mediums and formal techniques of her oeuvre. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1920, Hurtado immigrated to New York in 1928 and later lived in Mexico, the American Southwest, and Northern California. ‘Dark Years’ focuses on the artist’s early works from the 1940s to the 1950s, a period defined by prolific experimentation. The paintings and drawings on view range stylistically from surrealist figuration and geometric patterning, to biomorphic forms executed with expressive acuity. Assembled, they illuminate the emergence of a remarkable visual language and underscore the significance of Hurtado’s unique artistic contributions. ‘Dark Years,’ Hurtado’s first solo exhibition with Hauser & Wirth, will be followed in May 2019 by her first solo institutional exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London.

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1920, Luchita Hurtado has dedicated seventy years of her painting and drawing practice to the investigation of universality and transcendence. Developing her artistic vocabulary through a coalescence of abstraction, mysticism, corporality and landscape, the breadth of her experimentation with unconventional techniques, materials and styles speak to the multicultural and experiential contexts that have shaped her life and career. Hurtado emigrated to the United States in 1928, settling in New York where she attended classes at the Art Students League. She relocated to Mexico City in the late 1940s and, in the following decade, moved to San Francisco Bay, making frequent visits to Taos, New Mexico, and ultimately settling in Los Angeles.

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Location:
Hauser & Wirth New York
32 East 69th Street
10021 New York, NY
United States