Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Pat Steir, Painter of Monumental ‘Waterfalls,’ Dies at 87

An upcoming Parrish Art Museum survey will help frame her legacy.

Overview

  • The pioneering abstractionist died in Manhattan at 87, with her husband Joost Elffers and her niece Lily Sukoneck-Cohen confirming her death.
  • She became widely known for “Waterfalls,” large canvases made by pouring thinned oil paint from a ladder or cherry picker, a method she began in 1988.
  • Major museums collected her work, and honors included National Endowment for the Arts grants in 1973 and 1976 and a 1982 Guggenheim Fellowship.
  • Beyond painting, she helped build the art world’s infrastructure by cofounding Printed Matter with Sol LeWitt and serving on the founding board of the feminist journal Heresies.
  • A survey of her work is scheduled to open May 9 at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York.