Esphyr Slobodkina

Legacy

In April 2000, at age 91, Slobodkina established the Slobodkina Foundation, dedicated to the conservation, preservation, and exhibition of art. The Slobodkina Foundation was designed to educate the public about Slobodkina's work and encourage others to pursue their dreams through awareness of Slobodkina's accomplishments.

Before her death in 2002, Slobodkina redesigned her home in Long Island, New York, as a mini-museum and reading room for children, a place where guests viewed more than 500 works of art for more than ten years. Although the Slobodkina Home was sold in 2011, the Slobodkina Foundation continues to preserve the legacy of Slobodkina's career.

Her paintings, sculptures and literary works are part of the collections of The Metropolitan Museum, New York; the Smithsonian; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Heckscher Museum of Art; Hillwood Art Museum, the Whitney Museum, New York; the Northeast Children's Literature Collection, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut; the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection, The University of Southern Mississippi; the New York Public Library; among others.

From October 3, 2025 – January 11, 2026, the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts exhibited Architects of Being: Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina. The show examined “the ways in which they constructed their identities in a midcentury American art world.” The show will travel to Chrysler Museum of Art and the New Britain Museum of American Art. The catalog, Architects of Being: The Creative Lives of Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina, was edited by Catherine Walworth.