This is one of the first paintings that Slobodkina made in her apartment at 108 East 60th Street. She lived here with her mother after her father’s death in 1938. According to Gail Stavitsky in her catalog essay for The Art and Life of Esphyr Slobodkina, this work was probably influenced by Suprematism and Constructivism, movements that Slobodkina would have become familiar with through Bolotowksy. Abstraction with Red Circle has affinities with Bolotowsky’s 1936 Study for Mural for Williamsburg Housing Project, particularly the suspended geometric shapes and circle element. Bolotowsky’s work combines geometric and biomorphic elements – a synthesis of Constructivist and Surrealist motifs. The combination of these opposing motifs begins to appear in Slobodkina’s work as well (The Life and Art of Esphyr Slobodkina, Tufts University Art Gallery, 1992, p.17, 18). Slobodkina remarks that this work is “one of my most favorite ones because it’s so pure, so simple” (Slobodkina Interview, March 26, 1991, Tape I, Side I).