HUNTINGTON, NY.- To celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Russian-American artist Esphyr Slobodkina’s birth, a retrospective of her work will be shown at The Heckscher Museum of Art. The exhibition will include works from The Heckscher Museum's extensive Slobodkina holdings, supplemented with works from the collection of the Slobodkina Foundation, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Abstract paintings, whimsical sculptures, and works on paper will be included in this installation, which will be on view January 10 through March 22, 2009. The Heckscher is the first venue of the larger traveling exhibition organized by the Slobodkina Foundation.

Although Slobodkina's earliest paintings are impressionistic, under the influence of cubism she began working in an abstracted style and her most important work is non-objective. A founding member of the American Abstract Artists group in 1936, Slobodkina executed works in all media, and is widely known as the author/illustrator of the children's book Caps for Sale.

Born in Siberia in 1908, she traveled alone to America in 1928, enrolling at the National Academy of Design in New York. There she met fellow student Ilya Bolotowsky, whom she later married. Under Bolotowsky’s influence, Slobodkina began working in a flat, abstract style that incorporated line, interlocking form, and pure color. A long-time resident of Great Neck, Slobodkina is represented in important museum collections across the country.

The Heckscher Museum of Art engages visitors through stimulating and inspiring exhibitions, programs, and educational offerings dedicated to a full understanding of the visual arts. Industrialist August Heckscher founded the Museum in 1920, and the collection is focused on 19th to 21st century American and European art. The Heckscher is located in Heckscher Park, on Main Street (Route 25A) and Prime Avenue in Huntington Village, NY, on Long Island’s north shore. The Heckscher recently completed its Historic Building Restoration Project, and now offers an enhanced visitor experience. For further information, log on to: www.heckscher.org, or call 631.351.3250.