Black Pilaster III

“The reality with which I work is not intellectual or conceptual . . . but rather it is the exploration of pictorial tensions of form and space.”

Elaine Cohen was a pioneer in architectural identification, creating new typefaces and signs for buildings by architects Philip Johnson and Eero Saarinen. With her husband she established Ex Libris (1972–1993), a publisher that specialized in avant-garde art and architecture books.

Cohen painted through the 1980s, focusing on hard edges and bright colors such as those in Black Pilaster III. Late in her life, the artist stated, “My life as an artist has been shaped by two passions: for graphic design created in the public sphere on the one hand, and by the exploration of a related private vision in painting, on the other.”