American, 1905-1988

Perle Fine was an artist at forefront of the Abstract Expressionist movement as it unfolded in New York and East Hampton, Long Island. Fine studied with Hans Hofmann and was a friend of Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Franz Kline, and other leading artists of the era. She gained recognition after World War II, when she received a grant from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and showed at both Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century Gallery and the Museum of Nonobjective Painting (now the Guggenheim Museum). Her first solo exhibition was held at Willard Gallery, New York, in 1945. Subsequently she showed at Betty Parsons Gallery and the Tanager Gallery, the first New York artist’s cooperative. In 1949, she was one of few women artists invited by de Kooning to join The Club, the intellectual artists’ group that he and Kline led. Less well known than that of some of her male colleagues—in part because she lacked promotional skills—Fine’s work has recently received the attention it has long been due in exhibitions that provide new insight into Abstract Expressionism and in one-artist shows, including a traveling retrospective organized by Hofstra University in 2009.

Fine is represented in museums, universities, and private collections across the country, including Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts; Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; Ball State Museum of Art, Muncie, Indiana; Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, Nashville, Tennessee; Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; Hofstra University, Long Island, New York; Indianapolis Museum of Art; Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; New York University Art Collection; Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York; Principia College, Saint Louis, Missouri; Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Massachusetts; Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; University of California Art Museum, Berkeley; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro; and Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts.

EDUCATION:
Arts Students League, New York, New York, USA

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
Marian Willard Gallery, New York, 1945
Nierendorf Gallery, New York, 1946
Nierendorf Gallery, New York, 1947
M.H. De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, 1947
Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, 1949
Betty Parsons Gallery, New York 1951
Betty Parsons Gallery, New York 1952-3
Tanager Gallery, New York, 1955
Tanager Gallery, New York, 1957
Tanager Gallery, New York, 1958
Tanager Gallery, New York, 1960
Franklin Gallery, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 1961
Robert Keene Gallery, Southampton, New York, 1961
Graham Gallery, New York, 1961
Graham Gallery, New York, 1963
Graham Gallery, New York, 1964
Graham Gallery, New York 1967
Joan Washburn Gallery, New York, 1972
Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, 1973
Hofstra University Museum, Hempstead, New York, 1974
Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, 1976
Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, 1977
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York, Major Works, 1954–1978: A Selection of Drawings, Paintings, and Collages, 1978.
Ingber Gallery, New York, 1982
Ingber Gallery, New York, 1984Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, Perle Fine: Works on Paper, 1997
Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, East Hampton, New York, Perle Fine Collages, 1957–1966, 2005
McCormick Gallery, Chicago, Perle Fine: The Storm Departs, 2007
Hofstra University Museum, Hempstead, New York, Tranquil Power: The Art of Perle Fine, 2009 (traveling exhibition)

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
Municipal Art Galleries, New York, 1938
Art of this Century, New York, Spring Salon, 1943
The Museum of Non-Objective Painting (now, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), 1943
Art of this Century, New York, Spring Salon, 1944
The Museum of Non-Objective Painting (now, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), 1944
Puma Gallery, New York, 1944
Wittenborn Gallery, New York, 1944
The Museum of Non-Objective Painting (now, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), 1945
American Abstract Artists (AAA), 1945–1970s
Art of this Century Gallery, New York, The Women, 1945
Alumnae Hall Gallery, Western College, Oxford, Ohio, The Women: An Exhibition of Paintings by Contemporary Women, 1945
Provincetown Art Association, Massachusetts, 1945–51
The Museum of Non-Objective Painting (now, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), 1946
Society of American Etchers, Thirty-First Annual Exhibition, 1946
Whitney Museum of American Art, Annuals and Biennials, 1946
Whitney Museum of American Art, Annuals and Biennials, 1947
The Museum of Non-Objective Painting (now, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), 1947
Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, 1947
Stanhope Gallery, Boston, Works on Paper, 1947
Watkins Gallery, American University, Washington, D.C., Spring Annual, 1947
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, Painting Toward Architecture, 1947
Salon des Réalitiés Nouvelles, Paris, 1947
Art Institute of Chicago, Abstract and Surrealist American Art, 1948
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Biennial, 1948
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, New England Painting and Sculpture, 1949
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (traveling exhibition to European museums), 1949
Gallery 200, Provincetown, Massachusetts, Group Exhibition, 1949
Tryon Gallery, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, Ten Women Who Paint, 1949
Hawthorn Memorial Gallery and the Provincetown Art Association, Massachusetts, Post-Abstract Painting 1950: France, America, 1950
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, American Painting Today—1950, 1950
Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, 1950
Salon des Réalitiés Nouvelles, Paris, 1950
Whitney Museum of American Art, Annuals and Biennials, 1951
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, Contemporary Painting in the U.S., 1951
Stable Gallery, 9th Street Show, 1951
Whitney Museum of American Art, Annuals and Biennials, 1952
Wittenborn, One-Wall Gallery, New York, Lithographs, 1952
Bennington College Gallery, Vermont, Nine Women Artists, 1953
Stable Gallery, New York Annuals, 1953
New School for Social Research, New York, Painting and Sculpture, 1953
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Selections of Painting and Sculpture, 1953
Whitney Museum of American Art, Annuals and Biennials, 1954
Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, 1954
Stable Gallery, New York Annuals, 1954
Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, 1955
Stable Gallery, New York Annuals, 1955
Whitney Museum of American Art, Annuals and Biennials, 1955
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York, Eleven New Artists of the Region, 1955
Brooklyn Museum, New York, Ninth Annual Print Exhibition, 1955
American Federation of Arts, Contemporary Trends, traveling exhibition, 1955
Tanager Gallery, New York, 1955
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, Annuals, beginning 1955
Center Gallery, New York, 1956
Stable Gallery, New York Annuals, 1956
Tanager Gallery, New York, 1956
Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, 1957
Kraushaar Galleries and the Brooklyn Museum, New York, 14 Painter-Printmakers, 1957
Signa Gallery, East Hampton, New York, A Review of the Season, 1957
Stable Gallery, New York Annuals, 1957
Tanager Gallery, New York, 1957
Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, 1958
Whitney Museum of American Art, Annuals and Biennials, 1958
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Nature in Abstraction: The Relation of Abstract Painting and Sculpture to Nature in Twentieth-Century American Art, traveling exhibition, 1958
Zabriskie Gallery in cooperation with the American Federation of Arts, New York, Collage in America, 1958
Center Gallery, New York, 1958
Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art, Pittsburgh International Exhibitions of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, 1958
Tanager Gallery, New York, 1958
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York, Painters, Sculptors, Architects of the Region, 1959
The Contemporary Arts Association of Houston, Texas, 10th Street, 1959
Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York, Modern Drawing: European and American, 1959
Signa Gallery, East Hampton, New York, A Review of the Season, 1959
Tanager Gallery, New York, 1959
McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, Texas, 1960
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Second Annual Art Exhibit, 1960
Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexican Biennial, 1960
Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee, Art Today, 1960
Silvermine Annual Exhibition, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1960
Tanager Gallery, New York, 1960
Tanager Gallery, New York, 1961
Brooklyn Museum, New York, International Watercolor Biennial, 1961
Whitney Museum of American Art, Annuals and Biennials, 1961
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Geometric Abstraction in America, 1961
Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Art of Assemblage, traveling exhibition, 1961
Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art, Pittsburgh International Exhibitions of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, 1961
Silvermine Annual Exhibition, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1961
Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, 1962
Tanager Gallery, New York, 1962
American Federation of Arts, Provincetown: A Painter’s Place, 1962
American Federation of Arts, Lyricism in Abstract Art, 1962
Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts, Women Artists in America Today, 1962
Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, 1962
Silvermine Annual Exhibition, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1962
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Hans Hofmann and his Students, traveling exhibition, 1963
Silvermine Annual Exhibition, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1963
Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, 1964
Silvermine Annual Exhibition, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1964
Newark Museum, New Jersey, Women Artists in America, 1707–1964, 1965
Long Island University, Southampton, New York, 1965
Silvermine Annual Exhibition, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1965
Silvermine Annual Exhibition, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1966
University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, Selection 1967: Recent Acquisitions in Modern Art, 1967
Silvermine Annual Exhibition, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1967
Silvermine Annual Exhibition, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1968
Silvermine Annual Exhibition, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1969
Whitney Museum of American Art, Annuals and Biennials, 1972
Washburn Gallery, New York, Museum of Non-Objective Painting, 1972
State University of New York at Binghamton, 8 Contemporary American Artists, 1973
American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, Recipients of Honors Exhibition, 1974
Pratt Institute, New York, Recent Abstract Paintings, 1974
Freedman Art Gallery, Albright College, Reading, Pennsylvania, Perspective, 1977
Heckscher Museum, Huntington, New York, Artists of SuVolk County, 1978
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York, Women Artists of Eastern Long Island, 1979
Ashawagh Hall, East Hampton, New York, The Springs Artists Exhibition, 1979
Cultural Center, Paris, 15 Abstract Expressionists, 1979
Phoenix Gallery, Gallery I, Maryland, Artists of East Hampton, 1979
Marilyn Pearl Gallery, New York, Geometric Tradition in American Painting: 1920–1980, 1980
Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, 17 Abstract Artists of East Hampton: The Pollock Years 1946–56, 1980
Summit Art Center, New Jersey, American Artists: The Early Years, 1981
Phoenix Gallery, Gallery II, Washington, D.C., Drawings, 1981
Mabel Smith Douglas Library, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Modern Masters: Woman of the First Generation, 1982
Ingber Gallery, New York, The Return of Abstraction, 1984
Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York, Some Major Artists of the Hamptons, Then and Now: 1960s–1980s, 1984
Ingber Gallery, New York, A Colorful Retrospective: Works on Paper, 1986
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York, East Hampton Avant-Garde: A Salute to the Signa Gallery, 1990
Baruch College Gallery, City University of New York, Reclaiming Artists of the New York School: Toward a More Inclusive View of the 1950s, 1994
Baruch College Gallery, City University of New York, Women and Abstract Expressionism: Painting and Sculpture, 1945–1959, 1994
Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Massachusetts, New York—Provincetown: A 50’s Connection, 1994
Thomas McCormick Gallery, Chicago, Abstract Expressionism: Second to None, 2001
Thomas McCormick Gallery, Chicago, Abstract Expressionism: Second to None, Revised and Expanded, 2004
Rockford Art Museum, Illinois, Reuniting an Era—Abstract Expressionists of the 1950s, 2005
Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York, Paper Works by Abstract Masters, 2006
Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, Suitcase Paintings: Small Scale Abstract Expressionism, traveling exhibition, 2007
Museo d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina SoWa, Spain, Be-Bomb: The Transatlantic War of Images and all that Jazz, 1946–1956, 2007

MUSEUM COLLECTIONS:
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts
Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock
Ball State Museum of Art, Muncie, Indiana
Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, Nashville, Tennessee
Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Hofstra University Museum, Hempstead, New York
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, New York
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
New York University Art Collection
Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York
Principia College, Saint Louis, Missouri
Provincetown Art Association Museum, Massachusetts
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York University of California, Berkeley
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts

AWARDS:
1978, Guild Hall Artist Members’ Exhibition