Perle Fine

(American, 1905–1988)

Perle Fine was an American painter known for her expressive abstract works. Inspired by music, dance, and the natural world, Fine investigated the possibilities of nonobjective art. “Color is always a motivation. Mixing color, you know, is a very joyous occupation for me because there was so much excitement at what would happen when one color was placed next to another,” she once explained. Born on May 1, 1908 in Boston, MA, where her Russian immigrant parents settled upon arriving. Fine moved to New York to study art, meeting her future husband Maurice Berezov. While attending the Art Students League, her professors included Kimon Nicolaides. In 1933, she began taking classes at the artist Hans Hofmann’s new school, where she befriend fellow classmates Louise Nevelson and Lee Krasner. During the 1940s, Fine began to exhibit her work regularly in the company of the Abstract Expressionists Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock. However, by the mid-1950s, the artist had grown tired of city life and removed herself to rural Long Island. Over the years that followed, Fine’s work transformed to incorporate less expressive brushstrokes, grid-like compositions, and a muted palette. The artist died on May 31, 1988 in East Hampton, NY. Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art, among others.