In exploring the work of Sara Richman Harris, I expected to find a trajectory starting with teen-aged attempts at realism continuing through oil portraits from her student days at the Art Students League; increasingly impressionist free-form; and abstract work in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
But studying her early work more closely, I found abstraction in paintings as far back as 1935, when she was 14 years old—and on a notebook cover from the 1940s, when she studied at the Art Students League, in New York.
1930s-1940s
1950s
Sara’s work from the 1950s includes a geometric free-form black, gray, and white and a colorful sphere, replete with colorful lines, forms and movement– called “Sputnik”.
1960s-1970s
In the 1960s, Sara experimented with dots and splashes of color on canvas, and with using wax to create a natural scene on glass. A wax composition, likely from the 1960s, includes a menorah that is barely visible against a colorful background. In the 1970s, the abstracts become bolder–some even surrealistic renditions of what may be natural forms. Evident throughout are powerful brushstrokes, strong lines, colors and shapes– some geometric, some free form, some both.
Sara’s work shows influences of earlier 20th century artists such as Georges Braque, Franz Marc, El Lissitzky, Paul Klee, Max Ernst, Marc Chagall and Paula Modersohn Becker. But, perhaps more importantly, it embodies Sara’s unique vision, love of exploration and experimentation, versatility, spirit, skill and strength.