Art

“Dusk” courtesy of the Milton Resnick & Pat Passlof Foundation. Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College.

—

“Painting is inconvenient. It is slow and may require a whole life.”

– Pat Passlof

Pat Passlof was an abstract painter of the New York School whose tireless exploration of color and form gave her work a distinct voice. Having grown up in New York, in 1948, Passlof travelled to Asheville, North Carolina to study at the famed Black Mountain College, where she took classes with Willem de Kooning. This summer proved pivotal for her trajectory as a painter; she continued to study with de Kooning privately after returning to New York, eventually leaving the city again to earn a BFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1951. Back in New York in the 1950s, she became a fixture in the downtown arts scene, attending meetings at The Club (eventually organizing “The Wednesday Night Club”), showing at the March Gallery on 10th Street, and marrying fellow painter Milton Resnick.

Passlof’s early work built on her art education. She utilized biomorphic forms like those in the contemporary work of Arshile Gorky and de Kooning and was influenced by existentialist ideology which informed Abstract Expressionism. However, Passlof was always individualistic and her work was constantly varied in terms of touch, form, and palette. She was never content to repeat herself.

Learn more: https://www.resnickpasslof.org/pat-passlof |  The Maier Museum