Pat Passlof (1928-2011) was a well-known abstract painter who gave her paintings a distinct personality via her unrelenting experimentation with color and form. Even though Passlof usually painted in a vertical perspective, her paintings frequently alluded to abstracted landscapes, much like the latter works of Claude Monet. She avoided repetition and preserved a unique, constantly changing style characterized by a variety of forms, textures, and color palettes, which kept her work lively and original. Passlof, who was born and raised in New York, traveled to Asheville, North Carolina, to enroll at the esteemed Black Mountain College, where she was taught by Willem de Kooning. This summer was transformative for her artistic journey; upon returning to New York, she continued private studies with de Kooning and later pursued a BFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Back in New York during the 1950s, she became an integral part of the downtown art scene. A dedicated educator, Passlof taught at Richmond College, CUNY, and at the College of Staten Island, CUNY.

In 2011, a retrospective of her work was held at the Black Mountain College Museum in Asheville, NC. Her art was also featured in the Museum of Modern Art’s 2017 exhibition Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction. In 2020, the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation hosted a retrospective curated by Karen Wilkin. Her works are included in the collections of the Milwaukee Museum of Art, the Corcoran Collection, and the Black Mountain College Art Museum, among others. Recently, her work was acquired by the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Crystal Bridges Museum.