VITA PETERSEN AT MARK BORGHI FINE ART

Vita Petersen was born in 1915. She began her fine art studies at the Berlin Academy with Carl Hofer and the Munich School of Fine Arts. Upon her move to the US in 1938, Petersen continued studying at the world-renowned Hoffman School. Like Hoffman, Petersen has come into her own to produce her most compelling and mature works in the past decade. Using Hoffman’s “push and pull” theory, she creates a visual tension between the dominant and secondary forms in her compositions. Her painting are alive with color and movemement.
Petersen experienced the method of “all over painting” during daily interactions with Jackson Pollock while summering in Springs, East Hampton in 1948 and 1949. Pollock opened her yes to a new way of seeing and changed her way of experiencing and creating art. While exhibiting at Betty Parsons Gallery in the late 1960’s and ‘70’s, she was known to work representationally often depicting figures in a crowd or still life. She later returned to her non-objective style.
“The paintings take over, and I follow.” says petersen.

Vita Petersen has taught painting and drawing at the Spence School in Manhattan and she has exhibited her works at the Betty Parsons and Tanager Galleries. Her works are included in the collections of Mrs. Blanche Rockefeller, the Joseph Hirschhorn Collection, The Corcoran Museum, The Weatherspoon Gallery, First National bank in Chicago and others.

She is one of few remaining artists from the golden age of American Abstract Painting who remains working today. A selection of Petersen’s works from the past two years is on exhibit at Mark Borghi Fine Art in Bridgehampton, NY.