First and foremost, Perle Fine (1905-1988) considered herself a painter. however, she also experimented with a variety of mediums and multiple modes of abstraction throughout her career. Beginning art studies in her teenage years, Fine went on to read illustration and graphic design, exposing her to a range of disciplines before moving on to etching, drawing and collage. Throughout her 50 year career, Fine was consistently challenged and motivated by her identity as a female artist. Her entry into the New York art world of the 1940s defied principles that Haworth currently tackles as a female artist and advocate.
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Perle Fine
Cool Series (Red over Yellow), ca. 1961-1963 Oil on canvas
56.5 x 61.6 cm
22 1/4 x 24 1/4 in -
Perle Fine
Cool Series No.7, Square Shooter, ca. 1961-1962 Oil on canvas
101.6 x 101.6 cm
40 x 40 in -
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Out of revelation, which came about through endless probing, came revolution. All irrelevancies in my painting are eliminated to exact an explicit image resulting in a clarity that rings a bell-like awakening. There is more than meets the eye here. These simpli ed works do not intend to be hard-edge or soft-edge; the expression is more than merely chemical or optical—it is metaphysical. The economy of means somehow seemed necessary to secure the sensation of the expression of the existentialist in art.
— Perle Fine —
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The artist saw herself first and foremost as a painter, but also experimented with etching, collage and drawing. Fine’s style was lauded for its visual rhythms despite the geometric nature of its form. Perle Fine’s ‘Cool Series’ (1961–63) was an evolution of her earlier Abstract Expressionist style. The artist explained that this body of work was a “growth” rather than a “departure” from gestural abstraction into a more reductive, geometric approach to painting. Echoing her own move from bustling Manhattan to a quiet and contemplative East Hampton in the mid 50s; Fine’s ‘Cool Series’ represents what the critic Clement Greenberg described as a “new openness and clarity”.
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Perle Fine
Cool Series #18, Deceptive Beat, ca. 1961-1963 Oil on canvas
167.6 x 141.6 cm
66 x 55 3/4 in
