Esteban Vicente (Spanish, January 20, 1903–January 10, 2001) was an Abstract Expressionist painter who was born with the name Esteban Vicente Pérez. Vicente became interested in art thanks to his weekly visits to the Museo del Prado with his father starting at the age of four. When he was 16, he began to draw. Though he was expected to follow the family tradition of enlisting in the army, he left military school after three months when he made the decision to become an artist. Vicente attended the Real Academia de Bellas Artes from 1921 to 1924.
In 1928, he had his first one-man exhibition in Madrid. He traveled to Paris after the exhibition, and returned to Spain in 1930. Vicente married Estelle Charney in 1935. Charney was an American he had met in Paris, and after the Spanish Civil War began in 1936, they went to New York. Vicente was given the position of Vice Consul by the Spanish Ambassador to the United States in Philadelphia, PA, where he remained for three years. In 1937, Vicente had a one-man exhibition at the Kleenman Gallery in New York, NY. He returned to live in New York in 1939, where he made a living taking portrait commissions as well as teaching Spanish. In 1945, he participated in an exhibition in Puerto Rico, which opened up a job teaching painting at the University of Puerto Rico in 1946. In 1950, Vicente participated in an exhibition at Kootz Gallery. In 1951, he participated in the Charles Egan Gallery and the Sidney Janis Gallery exhibits, as well as the Ninth Street Art Exhibition.
Vicente taught for 36 years at the New York Studio School, where he was a founding member. The Esteban Vicente Museum of Contemporary Art was opened in Segovia in 1998 by the Spanish government. In New York, kindergarten and second grade schools were named the Esteban Vicente School. In addition, there is a museum in Spain attributed to the artist called the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente. He died on January 10, 2001.