VITA PETERSEN

PETERSEN--Vita 1915 - 2011. Vita Petersen was an abstract expressionist painter and part of the New York circle of artists that included Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Hedda Sterne among others. She was a friend of Mercedes Matter with whom she started the New York Studio School and where she remained Trustee and member of the board of governors until her death at 96 on October 22 at her home in Manhattan. She remained fiercely involved with the students until the end. Born in 1915 in Berlin to a family prominent in German history, her father was German Secretary of State in the 1920s; her mother was a descendant of Moses Mendelssohn. Vita fled the Nazis, in 1938 emigrating to New York with her husband Gustav Petersen to whom she was married for 60 years until his death on October 19, 2002. She began art school at 16 when Max Liebermann, the internationally known artist told her reluctant parents: "Any blind person with a crutch can see she has talent," In New York she studied with Hans Hofmann and exhibited in Berlin and New York at the Stable Gallery and the Betty Parsons Gallery, among others. She had her last solo show when she was 94 Inventive to the end, even as her eyesight dimmed, she changed to black and white from her earlier color. These last paintings, considered some of her finest work will be exhibited this winter. Her ability to grow and experiment was an inspiration to the large number of young artists who constantly sought her advice. She is survived by her daughter Andrea Petersen, granddaughter Jessica Chermayeff, son-in-law Peter Chermayeff, nephews Ernest von Simson and Wolfgang Traber, and a large and loving group of extended family and friends. The family is planning a memorial at the New York Studio School at 2pm on January 29.