Throughout her career, artist Luchita Hurtado has created an extensive body of paintings, drawings and prints that bear witness to a dedicated and intense engagement with the world around her.

The book will tell the remarkable story of a 98 year old artist whose work has only started to be exhibited in the last few years. Born in Maiquetía, Venezuela, in 1920, Luchita Hurtado has dedicated 70 years of her painting and drawing practice to the investigation of universality and transcendence.

Her subject matter makes use of unexpected perspectives – looking straight down or across her own body, or straight up to a glimpse of sky – using cosmic motifs and geometric abstractions. Hers is a vision of the human body as a part of the world, not separate from nature.

For this catalogue, writer and curator Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer has written a contextual survey of the artist’s career and its unique course; activist-artist Andrea Bowers has written a text, The Equanimity of Luchita Hurtado; Hurtado’s son, the artist Matt Mullican, has written a series of short vignettes about his mother.

American landscape architect and graphic designer Barbara Stauffacher Solomon has provided a written response to an archival photograph, attesting to a lifelong friendship with Hurtado that has transcended their respective artistic practices. This book features a new interview between Hurtado and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, and an extensive timeline on the artist’s life.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition at Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London (23 May – 20 October 2019).