Cora Cohen Trust

Beginnings: Bennington

Cora Cohen’s Orange Series consists of 13 related small paintings, created while she was an undergraduate at Bennington College.

Abstract painting with curving orange and tan bands flowing across a slate-blue background.

Orange Series 01, 1963

Paint on paper

9 x 12 in.

Abstract vintage artwork with bold orange and beige curved shapes against a muted teal background, creating a dynamic, warm, retro mood.

Orange Series 11, 1963

Paint on paper

9 x 12 in.

Abstract geometric artwork with sweeping orange and red curves, a beige band, and deep teal background; bold, dynamic, vintage texture.

Orange Series 07, 1963

Paint on paper

9 x 12 in.

Abstract torn-paper collage with sweeping orange and tan shapes on a textured beige background, evoking warmth, movement, and modern design.

Orange Series 03, 1963

Paint on Paper

9 x 12 in.

Abstract orange ribbon-like curves sweep across textured tan paper, creating a bold, warm composition with a vintage, handmade feel.

Orange Series 06, 1963

Paint on Paper

9 x 12 in.

Abstract layered paper collage in warm orange and tan, with sweeping curved shapes creating a bold, earthy, dynamic composition.

Orange Series 09, 1963

Paint on Paper

9 x 12 in.



Horse Latitudes was the first painting she donated to Bennington College, in 1979.

Abstract blue seascape with a dark island and curved foreground shoreline, framed by rugged brown edges; vivid colors create a moody calm.

Horse Latitudes, 1979

Oil on linen

70 x 104 in.

View Work


Toward the end of end of her life, Cora approached Anne Thompson, Director and Curator of Bennington’s Usdan Gallery, about donating a second painting to the college. You can read Anne’s essay about that process, and about the lasting influence of Bennington on Cora’s art and practice, in Stirring Up Some Trouble.

Abstract mixed-media painting with fiery red, orange, and brown textures, smoky green accents, and chaotic layered brushwork conveying intensity.

Heart of Darkness, 2004

Acrylic, charcoal, copper, Flashe, oil pastel, pastel, and pigment on muslin

69 x 71 in.

Beginnings: Bennington

Beginnings: Bennington

Back to Index

1963–1976

Back to Index

1963–1976

Cora Cohen's foundational training took place at Bennington College, where she studied with Paul Feeley, Lawrence Alloway, and Pat Adams, and where she began to define her practice against the formalism dominant in the criticism of the time. Bennington remained a lasting presence throughout her life: she gave the college Horse Latitudes in 1979, and shortly before her death in 2023 arranged the gift of Heart of Darkness (2004), dedicating it to Pat Adams.


From “A Personal History”
by Cora Cohen

“I received my BA (1966) and MFA (1974) from Bennington College in Vermont, where the aesthetic in painting was soft hard-edge and color field (through Paul Feeley) and the prevailing view in criticism was formalism (through Clement Greenberg) The resolutely American New England-ness of the region, and the introduction of industrial materials and methods with which to make art, helped reorganize my ideas.”

“I found Greenberg’s formalism deracinated the work itself, removing the practice of painting from any sense of the world. Artist and viewer alike were to consider a painting as an autonomous object, outside of its psychological, social, and economic context. This resulted in a binary approach, which was not only restrictive, but also insidious, as it left room for an aggressive assertion of a favored look and style.”

“I have refuted this throughout my career, both obliquely and explicitly. For me, interesting work doesn't have that kind of rigidity—figure isn’t necessarily on top of ground; absence and presence can change places—and the work is also linked to how we relate to people and how we communicate. How I live informs how I make all my work. It asserts the existence of the world at large, and somehow enables that world to enter in the work.”


RELATED DOCUMENTS

Cora Cohen, “Greenberg’s Formalism,” 2015

Anne Thompson, “Stirring Up Some Trouble,” Cora Cohen, Gregory R. Miller & Co., 2026

 

Cora Cohen's foundational training took place at Bennington College, where she studied with Paul Feeley, Lawrence Alloway, and Pat Adams, and where she began to define her practice against the formalism dominant in the criticism of the time. Bennington remained a lasting presence throughout her life: she gave the college Horse Latitudes in 1979, and shortly before her death in 2023 arranged the gift of Heart of Darkness (2004), dedicating it to Pat Adams.


From “A Personal History”
by Cora Cohen

“I received my BA (1966) and MFA (1974) from Bennington College in Vermont, where the aesthetic in painting was soft hard-edge and color field (through Paul Feeley) and the prevailing view in criticism was formalism (through Clement Greenberg) The resolutely American New England-ness of the region, and the introduction of industrial materials and methods with which to make art, helped reorganize my ideas.”

“I found Greenberg’s formalism deracinated the work itself, removing the practice of painting from any sense of the world. Artist and viewer alike were to consider a painting as an autonomous object, outside of its psychological, social, and economic context. This resulted in a binary approach, which was not only restrictive, but also insidious, as it left room for an aggressive assertion of a favored look and style.”

“I have refuted this throughout my career, both obliquely and explicitly. For me, interesting work doesn't have that kind of rigidity—figure isn’t necessarily on top of ground; absence and presence can change places—and the work is also linked to how we relate to people and how we communicate. How I live informs how I make all my work. It asserts the existence of the world at large, and somehow enables that world to enter in the work.”


RELATED DOCUMENTS

Cora Cohen, “Greenberg’s Formalism,” 2015

Anne Thompson, “Stirring Up Some Trouble,” Cora Cohen, Gregory R. Miller & Co., 2026