Pat Steir (b. 1938) was born in Newark, New Jersey and currently lives and works in New York. A defining figure in contemporary painting, Steir developed her signature Waterfall paintings in the 1980s by surrendering to chance and "non-intention," embedding lyrical meaning through the free expression of paint. Her process of dripping, pouring, and throwing paint marks a continuing exploration of materiality and the artist's role in creation, orchestrating a deliberate dance between pigment, gravity, gesture, and canvas ground.
Steir's practice is grounded in a rigorous engagement with abstraction and language. She integrates poetic nomenclature as an essential component of her work, stating that "the poetry of the title is part of the picture for me. It's absolutely the same thing." Her recent paintings refine these guiding variables, layering multi-colored brushstrokes as optical elements within encompassing poured grounds, while precise white lines recall her underlying interest in grids and matrices. Rhythm and evocation—from playful to melancholic—emerge through both visual and linguistic registers.
Throughout her renowned career, Steir has received a Guggenheim Artist's Fellowship (1981), a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist's Grant (1973), an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Art from Pratt Institute (1991), and a Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University (2001). She is a founding board member of Printed Matter, Inc. and the landmark feminist journal Heresies. Her work is held in major collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Tate Gallery London.
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