Jerald Melberg Gallery is honored to present an exhibition of paintings and collage by Esteban Vicente, one of the leading members of the American Abstract Expressionist Movement.

During the course of his long and lauded career as a member of the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, Esteban Vicente closely studied shape, light and the possibilities of pigment.  Born in Turégano, Spain, Vicente moved to New York after the Spanish Civil War in 1936. His contemporaries and associates included Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, Barnett Newman, and Ad Reinhardt. Influential New York galleries, and critics alike, recognized his bold, gestural work as being of central importance to the era. In 2011, the Grey Art Gallery at New York University organized a career retrospective featuring collages, paintings and small-scale assemblages, showcasing his talent as both painter and sculptor.

In 1991, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia awarded Vicente the Gold Medal of Honor in the Fine Arts.  The artist’s work is held by major museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.