Deus Ex Machina
Year: 1961
Type: Painting
Catalog #: SF_0039
Current Location:
Private Collection
Exhibition History:
“Esphyr Slobodkina: An Introspective,” Art & Culture Center of Hollywood, February 16-March 18, 1984; Tufts show, 1992.
“Rediscovering Slobodkina: A Pioneer of American Abstraction,” Samuel P. Harn Art Museum, Gainesville, FL, Jun 16 – Sept 6, 2009; Naples Museum of Art, Naples, FL, Oct 1 – Dec 29, 2009. Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln Nebraska, Jan-April 2010.
2016-17: “The Art & History of Esphyr Slobodkina” 54 works on exhibition North Miami, FL 2016. (Florida State award for best exhibition program of 2017.)
“Women at The Helm” Cold Spring Harbor Museum, Long Island, NY Oct-2018-Sept 2019
Dimensions:
10 x 12 1/4
“Deus Ex Machina represents the power behind the throne, the three very different powers: the church, the military, and the monarchy…and the rest is machinery. It was collage. Then I laid the drawing…and put in color to go with the theme of the Spanish Inquisition [similar theme to Hand of Isabella, which was probably made around the same time]” (Slobodkina Interview, March 26, 1991, Tape I, Side I). Slobodkina points out a hand pulling an invisible cord.
Signature / Artist Notation:
Recto: Esphyr Slobodkina
Verso: To My Sister, with love and appreciation of help willingly given not to me only, but to all those who need it. Phyra Nov. 23, 1961 (Original sketch)