Esteban Vicente (1903–2001), Untitled No. 5, 1961. Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in. (91.4 x 121.9 cm). Grey Art Gallery, New York University Art Collection. Gift of Bernard Reis, 1965.41. © Estate of Esteban Vicente. Courtesy Museo Esteban Vicente

The “New American Painting” of the 1950s was, to a great extent, created by foreign-born artists. Esteban Vicente immigrated to the United States after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Within a decade he belonged to the circle of Franz Kline, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning—with whom he eventually shared a studio.

Vicente’s first abstract works reflect the influence of Cézanne’s landscapes. By the early 1950s, he was making Cubist-inspired collages. His subsequent work employs overlapping squares and rectangles arranged in grid-like formations. During the 1950s he moved on to irregular shapes delineated by vigorous, gestural brushstrokes, such as in Untitled No. 5, where the colored patches appear to push and pull against each other. Later on, Vicente used an air gun to create luminous, floating fields of color. His lifelong teaching roster included stints at the New York Studio School, Black Mountain College, Parsons, Princeton, Berkeley, NYU, and Yale.