Blue and White Waterfall

This print is based on one of Steir’s iconic Waterfall paintings, which she has been making since the late 1980s. This body of work developed out of several pivotal moments in her career. Her friendship with composer John Cage led her to incorporate elements of chance into her painting process. In the early 1980s, her travels to Japan and exposure to Japanese woodcuts and Chinese literati landscape paintings also contributed to what would become her Waterfall works. She makes these by pouring paint onto the canvas without a brush and letting gravity determine the outcome—channeling the force and motion of a waterfall rather than trying to represent it illusionistically.