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Journey Into Future

Artist Esphyr Slobodkina (American, born Russia, 1908 - 2022)

CultureAmerican

Date1978

MediumOil on gessoed canvas on Masonite

Dimensions50 × 50 × 2 in. (127 × 127 × 5.1 cm)

SignedThe work is signed and dated by the artist in the lower left corner.

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number2026.8.1

Not on view

Provenance The work was created in 1978 by the artist Esphyr Slobodkina. It was kept until her death in 2002 and passed to her Foundation. With the Esphyr Slobodkina Foundation, LewAllen Galleries of Santa Fe, New Mexico, manages the artist’s estate. The work was identified in 2024 as part of exhibition research for the show Architects of Being: Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina, and exhibited in that exhibition at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock, Arkansas from October 3, 2025, to January 11, 2026. The exhibition traveled to the Chrysler Museum of Art in February 2026.Exhibition HistoryArchitects of Being: Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina, Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock, Arkansas, October 3, 2025, to January 11, 2026. Architects of Being: Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina, Chrysler Museum of Art, February 20, 2026, to May 31, 2026. Esphyr Slobodkina: Crossing Borders, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM, May 26–June 17, 2023. Rediscovering Slobodkina: A Pioneer of American Abstraction, Hecksher Museum, NY, January 10, 2009–March 22, 2009; The Samuel P Harn Museum, Gainesville FL, June 16– September 6, 2009; Naples Museum of Art, FL: October 1–December 29, 2009; and Sheldon Art Museum, NE: January 26 – April 18, 2010. Esphyr Slobodkina: An Introspective, Art & Culture Center of Hollywood, February 16-March 18, 1984.Published ReferencesArchitects of Being: The Creative Lives of Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina, edited by Catherine Walworth, University of Arkansas Press, 2025, p. 80 (color illustration). Rediscovering Slobodkina: A Pioneer in American Abstraction, edited by Sandra Kraskin, Hudson Hills Press, 2009, p. 105 (color illustration, cat. 71).