David Ebony’s Top 10: Autumn 2025

Terrain Vague, 2022

Flashe and watercolor on linen

Photo courtesy Greene Naftali

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5.) Cora Cohen at Greene Naftali, Sept. 12-Nov. 1.

The late Cora Cohen (1943–2023) lived, breathed, and loved the language of gestural abstraction. Her deep reverence for and knowledge of the history of abstract painting— ranging from Kandinsky to Pollock, and from Joan Mitchell to peers like Dona Nelson and Craig Fisher— were reflected in everything she said and did. In other words, she was a painter’s painter. She felt a special kinship with German postwar artists such as Wols, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter, and her work was well appreciated in Germany, where she frequently exhibited and enjoyed prolonged stays. Beginning in the mid-1990s, with my Art in America colleague and painter Cathy Lebowitz, I often spent some unforgettable hours in Cohen’s New York studios in lively conversation, surrounded by, and intensely absorbed with her latest works. Although we were relative newcomers on the scene, Cohen always generously offered insights into her process and seemed to value our responses and opinions.

In general, Cohen’s consistently ethereal compositions result from dense layering and nuanced textures that shift dramatically in tone and temperament. This dreamy exhibition, Cora Cohen: A Decade: 2012–22, focuses only on works from her last years, after the rather thick layers of oil paint she once favored had yielded to delicate washes and subtle veils of color that seem almost about to evaporate. Her work might suggest a bridge between Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting, although with an inimitable touch and earthy palette. Veronica’s Veil (2022), for instance, features a meandering band of pale purple that nonchalantly frames airy washes of greens and browns at the center of the composition. Elsewhere, Terrain Vague (2022), with its luminous field of layered earth tones, exemplifies the close connection to nature that was central to Cohen’s painterly vision.