Pat Steir, a pioneering figure in feminist art and known for her transformative contributions to abstract painting, particularly through her celebrated Waterfall series (1988–), has passed away at the age of 87. Her passing on Wednesday, March 25, was confirmed by her husband, Joost Elffers, and her niece, Lily Sukoneck-Cohen. Steir, born in Newark, New Jersey in 1938, had traveled widely but regarded New York City as her true home, where she ultimately died.
Raised in an artistic family, Steir pursued painting despite her father’s unconventional encouragement to follow poetry. She studied at the Pratt Institute under artists like Richard Lindner, Adolph Gottlieb, and Philip Guston. Reflecting on Guston’s class, she once remarked to the Brooklyn Rail, “Guston read Time Magazine and the New York Times while we drank vodka out of the little cups [used for mixing turpentine].” In 1963, a year after graduating, Steir’s participation in a group exhibition at the High Museum in Atlanta marked her entry into the New York art scene as one of the first prominent female artists.
During her career, Steir developed significant relationships, including with reclusive painter Agnes Martin, her confidante with whom she spent every August for three decades in New Mexico. Her work, adjacent to conceptual and Minimalist movements, did not depict the feminist and civil rights movements directly but explored their underlying philosophies. Her early ’70s works, including canvases and wall drawings, often featured crossed-out roses as a commentary on aphorisms.
Steir actively participated in the women’s movement, striving for recognition as an artistic equal to her male peers. She contributed to founding the Heresies Collective, which produced a feminist art politics journal, served on the editorial board of Semiotext(e), and was a founding member of Printed Matter, Inc. In a 2019 interview, she reflected on the challenges she faced, noting that it was once unimaginable for a small girl to live a committed artist’s life.
Her later work in the 1980s was influenced by Japanese and Chinese painting techniques, involving a choreographed method of applying paint. Critic John Yau praised her later pieces for their acceptance of time and mastery over the medium in a 2022 review. Steir’s legacy is celebrated through her works housed in prestigious institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louvre, and she was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 2017.
