Vita Petersen

Vita Petersen (1915–2011) was an Abstract expressionist painter. She is known for her association with the New York Studio School.

Petersen née von Simson was born in Berlin, Germany in 1915. She studied at the Berlin Academy and the Munich School of Fine Arts.

She fled Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1938.

Petersen settled in New York. She married fellow immigrant Gustav Peterson, with whom she had one child. She studied with Hans Hofmann. Petersen was friends with Mercedes Matter, founder of the New York Studio School. Petersen was both a teacher and a trustee of the school. In the 1960s she was the subject of a series of portraits by Walker Evans.

She exhibited around New York City, including the Betty Parsons Gallery. In 2012 she held her last show Vita Petersen – In Black and White: Her Last Works at the New York Studio School.

Petersen died in New York City on October 22, 2011 at the age of 96.