BIOGRAPHY

As a child Esphyr Slobodkina (1908-2002) and her family fled Russia to settle in Manchuria. In 1928 Slobodkina immigrated to New York and, because she had been granted a student visa, she enrolled at the National Academy of Design. Although she had done this more out of the need to fulfill the terms of her visa than any desire to develop as an artist, she soon grew interested in art, and remained at the school until 1933. While she was a student there Slobodkina became acquainted with the artists Byron Browne and Gertrude and Balcomb Greene. She also met the artist Ilya Bolotowsky, whom she married in 1933.
With Bolotowsky, Slobodkina was invited to Yaddo, the artist’s colony in Saratoga Springs, New York. The experience was important to her development as an artist, as she began to move definitively toward an abstract style. Familial and financial pressures exerted themselves when her family emigrated to New York, and Slobodkina was forced to help support them. She and her mother opened a dress shop in which they created their own designs. Later, Slobodkina worked for several textile designing firms. In 1936 she began to participate in Works Progress Administration projects. During these years Slobodkina became very active in the Artist’s Union. Her talent for working in collage was recognized when she created posters for the group using cut paper. In addition, she experimented with three dimensional assemblages. Her style matured, and she found patronage, most notably from Albert E. Gallatin. In 1945 she was invited to participate in the Eight by Eight exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Slobodkina was an early member of the American Abstract Artists and she remained active in the group through the 1960s, serving as an officer on several occasions. Lively and energetic, her most significant contribution may have come in the 1940s when she served as hospitality chairman. With Alice Trumbull Mason, Slobodkina organized a series of cultural evenings in which she invited elite, socially prominent New Yorkers. In this role she introduced abstract art to an influential group, fostering a wider acceptance of modernism.
In 1937 Slobodkina met the children’s author Margaret Wise Brown. Slobodkina wrote and illustrated a story with collage to present to Brown. This began a new career for Slobodkina, who illustrated many children’s stories while still continuing her work as an abstract artist.