Perle Fine was born in Boston, MA, in 1905. Her interest in art started at early age. In her early twenties she moved to New York City to study at the Art Students League with Kimon Nicolades. In the late 1930s she began to study with Hans Hofmann in New York City as well as in Provincetown, MA. In 1950 she was nominated by Willem de Kooning and then admitted to the 8th Street “Artists’ Club”, located at 39 East 8th Street.
Perle Fine was chosen by her fellow artists to show in the Ninth Street Show held on May 21 – June 10, 1951. The show was located at 60 East 9th Street on the first floor and the basement of a building which was about to be demolished. According to Bruce Altshuler: "The artists celebrated not only the appearance of the dealers, collectors and museum people on the 9th Street, and the consequent exposure of their work but they celebrated the creation and the strength of a living community of significant dimensions."
Perle Fine participated from 1951 to 1957 in the invitational New York Painting and Sculpture Annuals, including the Ninth Street Show. She was among the 24 out of a total 256 New York School artists who was included in all the Annuals. These Annuals were important because the participants were chosen by the artists themselves.
In the 1950s Fine moved to the Springs, section of East Hampton on the eastern end of Long Island where Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner. Willem de Kooning, Conrad Marca-Relli and other members of the New York School found permanent residence.
Perle Fine stated the following: "I never thought of myself as a student or teacher, but as a painter. When I paint something I am very much aware of the future. If I feel something will not stand up 40 years from now, I am not interested in doing that kind of thing."
Perle Fine died of pneumonia on May 31, 1988, at the age of 83 in East Hampton, New York.
ARTWORK
Learn
PRESS
