Pat Steir’s signature abstract paintings feature vast, textural fields of color and poetic gestures that embrace both action and chance. Steir, who started her career aligned with Conceptual art and Minimalism, soon embraced wide-ranging influences including Chinese ink painting, Taoist philosophy, and the ideas of musician John Cage. Her subsequent works, such as her iconic “Waterfall” paintings, are strikingly elemental. They feature broad brushstrokes atop canvases, which produce long, elegant, freelowing drips below. Steir has exhibited in New York, London, Mexico City, San Francisco, Berlin, Rome, and Paris. Her work has sold for seven figures at auction and belongs in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Long Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Tate, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
