General & Miscellaneous American Art, Abstract Expressionism & Art of the 1950s

Esteban Vicente

Name: Esteban Vicente
Author: Elizabeth Frank
ISBN: 9781555950996

by Elizabeth Frank

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Overview

This magnificent volume by Pulitzer-Prize-winner Frank is the first devoted to the Spanish-born Vicente, one of the few surviving first-generation members of the New York School of Abstract Expressionists. Painting, collage, and drawing from a half-century of constant evolution. Over-size plates capture the luminosity and serenity of his rich palette and elegant compositions.

About the Author, Elizabeth Frank

Elizabeth Frank

Elizabeth Frank -- winner of the the Pulitzer Prize for her 1986 biography of poet Louise Bogan -- grew up in McCarthy-era Hollywood; and mines the memories of that peculiar historical moment in her debut novel, Cheat and Charmer.

Biography

Elizabeth Frank won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for her biography Louise Bogan: A Portrait. She is also the author of Jackson Pollock and Esteban Vicente. She has written many articles and book reviews on art and literature for The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine, and Art in America, among others. She is the Joseph E. Harry Professor of Modern Languages and Literature at Bard College.

Author biography courtesy of Random House, Inc.

Good To Know

In our interview with Frank, she shared some fun and fascinating insights about herself with us:

"Writers live fairly dull, monotonous lives, because everything percolating within them goes into the work."

"My daughter, Annie, a senior in high school, keeps me on my toes. I like to swim but hate hot weather, and I am afraid of heights. I like bittersweet chocolate and Bulgarian rakiya. I like painting and go to galleries and museums often. I think my daughter wishes I were a more ‘outdoors' sort of person -- I'm basically not."

"Growing up in Hollywood was fun and interesting but I'm glad I don't live there anymore."

"I am absolutely opposed to the war in Iraq."

"I love my work and have no hobbies. Everything feeds my work and what I want most in the world is more time to do it. When I'm not writing, I'm either reading or talking with people who interest me and whom I care about."

"My dislikes: war, especially preemptive war, bigotry and prejudice, violence, the waste of lives and possibilities, political lies."

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Editorials

Donna Seaman

Vicente was part of the postWorld War I movable feast that generated modern art. He traveled from the small Spanish town of his birth to Madrid, Barcelona, and Paris, reaching his final destination, New York, in 1936, where he became one of the first abstract expressionists. He continues to explore this infinitely malleable form with fluency and an organic spirituality. Pulitzer Prize winner Frank summarizes Vicente's life quickly, then embarks on an in-depth analysis of his work. She notes that his early study of sculpture strongly influenced his painting, endowing it with substance no matter how atmospheric it became. Vicente honed his skill at conveying "movement and incident" in his early collages, which are so multidimensional they seem to pop right off their two-dimensional plane. This is due, in part, to the amazing luminosity of his colors; some canvases are so radiant they look like stained glass. In his later works, Vicente's deceptively simple compositions open up more and more, ultimately attaining a sense of floating, of cosmic phenomena, or even music. Frank's insightful commentary is matched by top-notch color reproductions.