In late 2009, as she was about to turn 80, Vera Klement was spattering and brushing red paint onto a 6-by-7-foot canvas on the floor of her loft in Chicago where she lived and worked. It depicted a faceless man, his arms pressed tightly to his chest, surrounded by a field of red. To the right, separated by white space, was a black rectangle.

“This is a homage to Shostakovich,” she said in the short film “Vera Klement: Blunt Edge,” directed by Wonjung Bae, referring to the Russian composer and pianist Dmitri Shostakovich. Ms. Bae had made initial contact with Ms. Klement by email, expressing her admiration for her. “It’s an attempt to memorialize his struggle with the Soviet regime that tried in every way to suppress his freedom and individuality. The pose is holding onto himself.”

The rectangle, she added, was “the back door at which most Russians expected a visit from the government in the middle of the night.”

Ms. Klement, a Holocaust survivor who was known for paintings that combined elements of Abstract Expressionism and figurative art, died on Oct. 20 in Evanston, Ill. She was 93.

Her death, at a retirement home, was confirmed by Max Shapey, her son. It was not widely reported outside Chicago.

Ms. Klement’s paintings — of basic subjects like trees, landscapes and human figures — were influenced by her love of music and literature.