Perle Fine

Perle Fine (1905–1988) was an American Abstract Expressionist painter.

Perle Fine was born in Boston, MA, in 1905. Her interest in art started at early age. In her early twenties she moved to New York City to study at the Art Students League with Kimon Nicolades. In the late 1930s she began to study with Hans Hofmann in New York City as well as in Provincetown, MA. In 1950 she was nominated by Willem de Kooning and then admitted to the 8th Street “Artists’ Club”, located at 39 East 8th Street.

Perle Fine was chosen by her fellow artists to show in the Ninth Street Show held on May 21 – June 10, 1951. The show was located at 60 East 9th Street on the first floor and the basement of a building which was about to be demolished. According to Bruce Altshuler:

"The artists celebrated not only the appearance of the dealers, collectors and museum people on the 9th Street, and the consequent exposure of their work, but they celebrated the creation and the strength of a living community of significant dimensions."

Perle Fine participated from 1951 to 1957 in the invitational New York Painting and Sculpture Annuals, including the Ninth Street Show., She was among the 24 out of a total 256 New York School artists who was included in all the Annuals. These Annuals were important because the participants were chosen by the artists themselves.

In the 1950s Fine moved to the Springs, section of East Hampton on the eastern end of Long Island where Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner. Willem de Kooning, Conrad Marca-Relli and other members of the New York School found permanent residence.

Perle Fine stated the following:

" I never thought of myself as a student or teacher, but as a painter. When I paint something I am very much aware of the future. If I feel something will not stand up 40 years from now, I am not interested in doing that kind of thing."

Perle Fine died of pneumonia on May 31, 1988, at the age of 83 in East Hampton, New York.

• 1945: Marian Willard Gallery, NY;
• 1946–47: Nierendorf Gallery, NYC;
• 1947: M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, Ca;
• 1949, 1951–53: Betty Parsons Gallery, NY;
• 1955, 58: Tanager Gallery, NYC;
• 1961, 63, 64, 67: Graham Gallery, NY;
• 1972: Joan Washburn Gallery, NY;
• 1978: “Major Works: 1954–1978: A Selection of Drawings, Paintings, and Collages,” Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY.

• 1945: The Art of This Century, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC;
• 1946, 47, 49, 51, 52, 54, 55, 58, 61, 72: Whitney Museum of American Art, Annuals and Biennials, NY;
• 1947-52: Painting toward architecture, (Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art), 28(+) venues in US;
• 1950: “American Painting Today 1950,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC;
• 1951, 1953–57: Ninth Street Exhibition, the first and subsequent 5 “New York Painting and Sculpture Annual,” Stable Gallery, NY;
• 1951-52: "Paintings from the Miller Company Collection". Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA. (December 3, 1951 - January 23, 1952);
• 1958: “Nature in Abstraction; The Relation of Abstract Painting and Sculpture to Nature in Twentieth-Century American Art,” circ., Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC;
• 1961–62: “The Art of Assemblage,” circ., Museum of Modern Art, NY;
• 1963–64: “Hans Hofmann and His Students,” circ., Museum of Modern Art, NYC;
• 1967: “Selection 1967: Recent Acquisitions in Modern Art,” University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley;
• 1984: “The Return of Abstraction,” Ingber Gallery, NY;
• 1990: “East Hampton Avant-Garde; A Salute to the Signa Gallery,” Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY;
• 1994: "Reclaiming Artists of the New York School. Toward a More Inclusive View of the 1950s", Baruch College City University, New York City; "New York-Provincetown: A 50s Connection", Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts;
• 2004: "Reuniting an Era Abstract Expressionists of the 1950s.", Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, Illinois.
• 2011: "Black And – -", Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York City, NY

• Hitchcock, Henry-Russell. Painting toward architecture. [Midnight (1942), pp. 82-3]. Miller Company: Meriden, CT. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
• (August 29, 2016). 'The Painting toward architecture exhibition (1947-52) by the Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art: The artworks'. artdesigncafe. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
• "ArtFacts.net". ArtFacts.net. 
• "Anita Shapolsky Gallery, 152 East 65th Street, NYC | Fine, Perle". anitashapolskygallery.com. Retrieved 2016-03-05. 

• Anderson, Janet A. Women in the fine arts : a bibliography and illustration guide (Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, 1991) ISBN 0-89950-541-4
• Chiarmonte, Paula. Women artists in the United States : a selective bibliography and resource guide on the fine and decorative arts, 1750–1986 (Boston, Mass. : G.K. Hall, 1990.) ISBN 0-8161-8917-X
• Gibson, Ann Eden Abstract expressionism : other politics (New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, 1997.) ISBN 0-300-06339-3
• Gibson, Ann Eden. Issues in abstract expressionism : the artist-run periodicals (Ann Arbor, Mich. : UMI Research Press, 1990.) ISBN 0-8357-1944-8
• Herskovic, Marika New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists, (New York School Press, 2000.) ISBN 0-9677994-0-6. p. 16; p. 37; p. 138–141
• Herskovic, Marika. American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey, (New York School Press, 2003.) ISBN 0-9677994-1-4. p. 126–129
• Herskovic, Marika. American Abstract and Figurative Expressionism: Style Is Timely Art Is Timeless (New York School Press, 2009.) ISBN 978-0-9677994-2-1. p. 88–91
• Housley, Kathleen L. The Tranquil Power of Perle Fine's Art (Woman's Art Journal, Spring – Summer, 2003, vol. 24, no. 1, p. 3–10
• Housley, Kathleen L. Tranquil Power: The Art and Life of Perle Fine (New York City : Midmarch Arts Press, 2005) ISBN 1-877675-54-7
• Rosenberg, Harold. The anxious object; art today and its audience (New York, Horizon Press [1964]
• Rubinstein, Charlotte Streifer. American Women Artists: from early Indian times to the present (New York, N.Y. : Avon ; Boston, Mass. : G.K. Hall, 1982.) ISBN 0-380-61101-5