PEARL ANGRIST (1913-1983)

Pearl Angrist (Stern) was born in New York City to Polish parents in 1913. Her grandfather was a painter, and she always wanted to be an artist. At age 20 she won the St. Gaudens Medal for Art, as well as a scholarship to the Metropolitan Museum School of Art. She studied at the Art Students League under George Bridgman, K. Nicholaides, George Pickems, and importantly--Jack Tworkov--who called her his "prize student.”  Indeed, Angrist left a painting in Tworkov's studio that Larry Rivers saw on a visit, saying that it was a "groundbreaking work" for Jack. Tworkov was silent.  She also trained at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art, and the Columbia University  School of Painting and Sculpture.  At the age of 20-21 she was teaching art at the Riverside Church School where she was highly regarded.

She briefly "gave up" painting when she married Dr. Maurice Stern, but resumed exhibiting in the 1950s, dividing her time between married life on Long Island with her noted surgeon husband, raising two children, and fulfilling her lifelong passion of painting. She exhibited mostly in group shows, with a solo show at the Crespi Gallery in Manhattan of 16 oil paintings on paper of "Modern Nudes." She participated in shows at the Roko Gallery, the S. A. G. Galleries, and the Steindler Gallery, all in Manhattan. She was involved in the Silvermine Guild in New Canaan, Connecticut, also in the 1950s.

The Sterns were avid collectors of modern art, and had a number of  artist friends including Wiillem de Kooning and Arthur Kaufmann and his wife Elizabeth—all of whom admired Pearl's work. The paintings in this collection are personal works that stayed in the Angrist-Stern family until the passing of William Stern in 2020. They were held in the highest regard by the artist and her children. Some of the "Modern Nudes" were exhibited in 1959 at the Crespi Gallery; only a few of the paintings have been exhibited. The artist passed away in 1983.