Pace Prints is pleased to present Pat Steir: Hand-Painted Monotypes, an exhibition of prints by the American painter and printmaker. The prints were produced in collaboration with the artist and Pace Editions.
Pat Steir’s prolific career has spanned five decades. Though rooted in elements of Abstract Expressionism, Steir’s work is decidedly postmodern, drawing from influences that include poetry, Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asian customs. Often monumental in scale, and employing a fastidious, yet seemingly loose use of color, the works are dripping dreamscapes that often reference meditative and esoteric natural elements: waterfalls, constellations, fog, the sea.
To create the monotypes present in the exhibition, Steir has applied oil paint and other mediums to a previously silkscreened image. The resulting pieces differ greatly, yet are harmoniously linked through base imagery and paint application. For the artist, reexamining and reworking prints functioned as a form of internal dialogue over a several year period.
The prints in the exhibition are a celebration of and testament to Steir’s long standing love for the art of printmaking. For the artist, the process of creating a print, and the decisions made in ink and paint application is integral to understanding the content of the work.
Pat Steir was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1940. She received a BFA from Pratt Institute in 1961. The artist’s paintings, prints and wall drawings have been the subject of over 150 solo exhibitions worldwide, at venues including The Whitney Museum of American Art, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, The Brooklyn Museum, Musee d’Art Moderne and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This is Steir’s fourth solo exhibition with Pace Prints. She lives and works in New York City.