(Film Still) ‘Pat Steir: Artist’
On the occasion of the exhibition ‘Pat Steir. Mirage’ at Hauser & Wirth Wooster Street, and the release of ‘Pat Steir: Paintings 2018–2025’ from Hauser & Wirth Publishers, please join us for two screenings of the documentary ‘Pat Steir: Artist’ directed by Veronica Gonzalez Peña in our amphitheater at Hauser & Wirth 18th Street.
Among the great innovators of contemporary painting, Pat Steir first came to prominence in the late 1970s and early 1980s for her iconographic canvases and immersive wall drawings. By the late 1980s, her inventive approach to painting—the rigorous pouring technique seen in her Waterfall works, in which she harnessed the forces of gravity and gesture to achieve works of astonishing lyricism—attracted substantial critical acclaim.
This intimate film portrait by Steir’s friend, the novelist and filmmaker Veronica Gonzalez Peña, was shot over the course of three years primarily in Steir’s home and studio. Enlivened by a visually poetic style and the clear affection between filmmaker and subject, the film offers a profound look into the life of an artist.
PAT STEIR: ARTIST
Directed by Veronica Gonzalez Peña
74 min
Screenings will take place Wednesday - Thursday, 16 - 17 July at 7 pm in our amphitheater at Hauser & Wirth 18th Street.
On Wednesday 16 July, the screening will be followed by a Q&A with the film's director Veronica Gonzalez Peña.
This event is free; however, reservations are required.
Click here to register.
About ‘Pat Steir. Mirage’
This Summer at Hauser & Wirth’s Wooster Street gallery, Pat Steir will present 'Mirage', a site-specific installation that reconstructs the artist’s first installation from 1975. Installation has been an integral facet of Steir’s practice since this work, when she began painting and drawing directly onto the walls, defining spaces through color and line so that the viewer could stand in the very middle of her work. 'Mirage' builds on and adapts formal elements from Steir’s early installation which explored the foundations of visual and verbal consciousness. Steir has made more than 50 installations for public spaces and institutions including the New Museum, Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, documenta IX, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and MoMA PS1.
‘Pat Steir. Mirage’ follows the artist’s solo presentation of new paintings, ‘Pat Steir. Song’ at Hauser & Wirth Zurich, on view through 3 September 2025. The work on view in Zurich continues the very exploration of primary colors – red, blue and yellow – which served as the fundamental building blocks of the installation Steir conceived 50 years earlier.
About ‘Pat Steir: Paintings 2018-2025' from Hauser & Wirth Publishers
‘Pat Steir: Paintings 2018–2025,’ designed in close collaboration with the artist, combines rich illustrations with a new essay from Colm Toíbín and a previously unpublished conversation between Steir and Hirshhorn curator Evelyn C. Hankins.
About Pat Steir
Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1938, Pat Steir is among the great innovators of contemporary painting. She first came to prominence in the late 1970s and early 1980s for her iconographic canvases and immersive wall drawings. By the late 1980s, her inventive approach to painting—the rigorous pouring technique seen in her Waterfall series, in which she harnessed the forces of gravity and gesture to achieve works of astonishing lyricism—attracted substantial critical acclaim. Informed by a deep engagement with art history and Eastern philosophy, and a passion for artistic advocacy in both the visual and literary realms, Steir’s storied five-decade career continues to reach new heights through an intrepid commitment to material exploration and experimentation.
About Veronica Gonzalez Peña
Veronica Gonzalez Peña is a writer and filmmaker. She is also the founder of rockypoint Press, a series of artist/writer collaborative prints, books, and films, as well as rockypoint Productions. Her latest film, ‘Pat Steir: Artist,’ is an intimate and poetic first-person, character-driven documentary.
