In 1966 Herrera made a series of drawings for three-dimensional objects, each related to six specific paintings from her larger Blanco y Verde series (1959-1971). She explained the origins of her Estructuras as paintings that “were really crying out to become sculpture.” The drawings depict a rectangular solid rendered in an isometric fashion with one or more wedges excised, as if Herrera were turning over a slab of marble and carving into it. In each of the drawings the excisions occur in precisely the same locations as the triangles in their corresponding painting. Herrera’s proposal was to make these wall structures using Lucite or plexiglass. While she lacked the financial and technical resources to carry out these plans, in 1971 she was able to hire a carpenter and made several works in wood. Herrera applied paint to all of the exposed surfaces, making these works her first monochromes. It was not until 2007 that Herrera was finally able to realize these sculptural works on a larger scale, a project which would continue through the last decade and a half of her life. Borealis (2016) stands out as a singular example of a dichromatic Estructura, related to the two- paneled painting Blanco y Verde (1960) in the Smithsonian collection. As indicated in the painted diagram version from 1966, the sculpture consists of a white frontal plane with green sides. These green edges delineate the work from the white walls of the gallery and serve as another link between Herrera’s sculptures and her painting practice, in which she frequently extended her painted geometric compositions over the edges of the canvas. To mimic the composition of the 1960 Blanco y Verde, Borealis is made of three panels – on one side a large rectangle, on the other a forked structure formed by two smaller bifurcating rectangles. When viewed from a distance, the joint where the three panels meet appears as a vertical green line dissecting the sculpture in half, another unique feature of the work. The finished work creates a halo of green on the white wall, hence the fitting title Borealis.

-Adapted from Dana Miller’s ‘Through Lines: The Sculptural Work of Carmen Herrera,’ Carmen Herrera: Estructuras, Lisson Gallery (New York): 2021.

In 1966 Herrera made a series of drawings for three-dimensional objects, each related to six specific paintings from her larger Blanco y Verde series (1959-1971). She explained the origins of her Estructuras as paintings that “were really crying out to become sculpture.” The drawings depict a rectangular solid rendered in an isometric fashion with one or more wedges excised, as if Herrera were turning over a slab of marble and carving into it. In each of the drawings the excisions occur in precisely the same locations as the triangles in their corresponding painting. Herrera’s proposal was to make these wall structures using Lucite or plexiglass. While she lacked the financial and technical resources to carry out these plans, in 1971 she was able to hire a carpenter and made several works in wood. Herrera applied paint to all of the exposed surfaces, making these works her first monochromes. It was not until 2007 that Herrera was finally able to realize these sculptural works on a larger scale, a project which would continue through the last decade and a half of her life. Borealis (2016) stands out as a singular example of a dichromatic Estructura, related to the two- paneled painting Blanco y Verde (1960) in the Smithsonian collection. As indicated in the painted diagram version from 1966, the sculpture consists of a white frontal plane with green sides. These green edges delineate the work from the white walls of the gallery and serve as another link between Herrera’s sculptures and her painting practice, in which she frequently extended her painted geometric compositions over the edges of the canvas. To mimic the composition of the 1960 Blanco y Verde, Borealis is made of three panels – on one side a large rectangle, on the other a forked structure formed by two smaller bifurcating rectangles. When viewed from a distance, the joint where the three panels meet appears as a vertical green line dissecting the sculpture in half, another unique feature of the work. The finished work creates a halo of green on the white wall, hence the fitting title Borealis.

-Adapted from Dana Miller’s ‘Through Lines: The Sculptural Work of Carmen Herrera,’ Carmen Herrera: Estructuras, Lisson Gallery (New York): 2021.

In 1966 Herrera made a series of drawings for three-dimensional objects, each related to six specific paintings from her larger Blanco y Verde series (1959-1971). She explained the origins of her Estructuras as paintings that “were really crying out to become sculpture.” The drawings depict a rectangular solid rendered in an isometric fashion with one or more wedges excised, as if Herrera were turning over a slab of marble and carving into it. In each of the drawings the excisions occur in precisely the same locations as the triangles in their corresponding painting. Herrera’s proposal was to make these wall structures using Lucite or plexiglass. While she lacked the financial and technical resources to carry out these plans, in 1971 she was able to hire a carpenter and made several works in wood. Herrera applied paint to all of the exposed surfaces, making these works her first monochromes. It was not until 2007 that Herrera was finally able to realize these sculptural works on a larger scale, a project which would continue through the last decade and a half of her life. Borealis (2016) stands out as a singular example of a dichromatic Estructura, related to the two- paneled painting Blanco y Verde (1960) in the Smithsonian collection. As indicated in the painted diagram version from 1966, the sculpture consists of a white frontal plane with green sides. These green edges delineate the work from the white walls of the gallery and serve as another link between Herrera’s sculptures and her painting practice, in which she frequently extended her painted geometric compositions over the edges of the canvas. To mimic the composition of the 1960 Blanco y Verde, Borealis is made of three panels – on one side a large rectangle, on the other a forked structure formed by two smaller bifurcating rectangles. When viewed from a distance, the joint where the three panels meet appears as a vertical green line dissecting the sculpture in half, another unique feature of the work. The finished work creates a halo of green on the white wall, hence the fitting title Borealis.

-Adapted from Dana Miller’s ‘Through Lines: The Sculptural Work of Carmen Herrera,’ Carmen Herrera: Estructuras, Lisson Gallery (New York): 2021.

In 1966 Herrera made a series of drawings for three-dimensional objects, each related to six specific paintings from her larger Blanco y Verde series (1959-1971). She explained the origins of her Estructuras as paintings that “were really crying out to become sculpture.” The drawings depict a rectangular solid rendered in an isometric fashion with one or more wedges excised, as if Herrera were turning over a slab of marble and carving into it. In each of the drawings the excisions occur in precisely the same locations as the triangles in their corresponding painting. Herrera’s proposal was to make these wall structures using Lucite or plexiglass. While she lacked the financial and technical resources to carry out these plans, in 1971 she was able to hire a carpenter and made several works in wood. Herrera applied paint to all of the exposed surfaces, making these works her first monochromes. It was not until 2007 that Herrera was finally able to realize these sculptural works on a larger scale, a project which would continue through the last decade and a half of her life. Borealis (2016) stands out as a singular example of a dichromatic Estructura, related to the two- paneled painting Blanco y Verde (1960) in the Smithsonian collection. As indicated in the painted diagram version from 1966, the sculpture consists of a white frontal plane with green sides. These green edges delineate the work from the white walls of the gallery and serve as another link between Herrera’s sculptures and her painting practice, in which she frequently extended her painted geometric compositions over the edges of the canvas. To mimic the composition of the 1960 Blanco y Verde, Borealis is made of three panels – on one side a large rectangle, on the other a forked structure formed by two smaller bifurcating rectangles. When viewed from a distance, the joint where the three panels meet appears as a vertical green line dissecting the sculpture in half, another unique feature of the work. The finished work creates a halo of green on the white wall, hence the fitting title Borealis.

-Adapted from Dana Miller’s ‘Through Lines: The Sculptural Work of Carmen Herrera,’ Carmen Herrera: Estructuras, Lisson Gallery (New York): 2021.