Mark Borghi

Perle Fine (1905 – 1988 may be one of the best know New York Abstract Expressionists you don’t know much about. Clearly a determined individual, Perle Fine became a major figure of the post-war era. She was one of the first women to be admitted to the Artist’s Club and, considering the social culture of this era, this was no small feat. By 1949 she already had an enviable exhibition record, which included solo exhibitions at Willard and Betty Parsons in New York and at San Francisco’s de Young Museum.Fine was a long time member of the important American Abstract Artists group (AAA). Her education began in her native Boston before she enrolled at the Art Students League in 1935 and fell under the influence of Piet Mondrian. In 1939, she began working with Hans Hofmann, both in New York and at his summer school in Provincetown, MA. Fine broke with Hofmann’s theories and sought to find her own, more calm and contemplative mode of expression. After 1970 she focused her efforts on a series of spare, elegant geometric works called Accordments.Fine remained active in the arts throughout her life, teaching at Cornell University and Hofstra University. She had more than 30 solo exhibitions and countless group showings and is represented in numerous museum and private collections. A traveling museum retrospective was organized in 2009 by Hofstra University where Fine had taught. In 2016 she was included in the ground breaking exhibition “Women of Abstract Expressionism” organized by Gwen Chanzit at the Denver Art Museum. The show traveled and a major book has been published by Yale University Press.