Strong-willed and independent, Esphyr Slobodkina was not afraid to explore different genres, producing the occasional representational still life, landscape, or portrait. As she wrote in her memoirs: “To hell with what anyone thinks…I don’t feel a traitor to my art if, in the middle of preparation for an exhibition of abstract paintings, catching sight of an exceptionality attractive bouquet of flowers, I have a strong urge to paint it. I simply go ahead, and paint it.”