American, b. 1940
Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1938, Pat Steir studied art and philosophy at Boston University and received her BFA from the Pratt Institute in 1962.
In the late 1970s, Steir traveled extensively in the United States and Europe, where numerous galleries regularly presented her work. By the late 1980s, back in New York, Steir began to experiment with pouring and flinging layers of thinned paint onto canvas, releasing herself from conscious consideration of imagery and composition and allowing the indexical trace of her process to become the image itself. Her painting methods incorporate delimited chance, with a studied and deliberate release of control developed through her study of Japanese and Chinese painting. Deeply inspired by Taoism and Buddhism, her working methods transcend the divide between figuration and abstraction. Intentionally deviating from the gestural flatness of the Abstract Expressionists, Steir instead explores a contemplative condition of unbound perception. In this way, she seeks to both portray and evoke a state of mind: rather than representing the sublimity of a waterfall or seascape, Steir’s paintings become charged spaces of transcendental content.
Steir is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1982), as well as grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (1976, 1973). In 1991, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute, New York, and in 2001, she received the Boston University School for the Arts Distinguished Alumni Award. Steir received the Visionary Woman Award from the Moore College of Art & Design in 2015 and in 2016 was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts in Letters. In 2017, she was awarded the International Medal of Art by the United States Department of State.
In the late 1970s, Steir traveled extensively in the United States and Europe, where numerous galleries regularly presented her work. By the late 1980s, back in New York, Steir began to experiment with pouring and flinging layers of thinned paint onto canvas, releasing herself from conscious consideration of imagery and composition and allowing the indexical trace of her process to become the image itself. Her painting methods incorporate delimited chance, with a studied and deliberate release of control developed through her study of Japanese and Chinese painting. Deeply inspired by Taoism and Buddhism, her working methods transcend the divide between figuration and abstraction. Intentionally deviating from the gestural flatness of the Abstract Expressionists, Steir instead explores a contemplative condition of unbound perception. In this way, she seeks to both portray and evoke a state of mind: rather than representing the sublimity of a waterfall or seascape, Steir’s paintings become charged spaces of transcendental content.
Steir is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1982), as well as grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (1976, 1973). In 1991, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute, New York, and in 2001, she received the Boston University School for the Arts Distinguished Alumni Award. Steir received the Visionary Woman Award from the Moore College of Art & Design in 2015 and in 2016 was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts in Letters. In 2017, she was awarded the International Medal of Art by the United States Department of State.
