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Florence Weinstein (1895-1989) was a painter and ceramicist in New York, New York.
Weinstein was born to Gregory and Eugenie, immigrants from Lithuania and Russia, who married in 1890 in New York City; her two sisters, Eleanore and Sylvie, were also accomplished artists. After graduating from Adelphi College with a bachelor's degree in English, Weinstein taught high school, held held various other jobs during World War I, and visited France to travel and study French. She attended the Alliance Française from 1922 to 1923 and the École des Arts de la Sorbonne from 1931 to 1932.
In college, Weinstein studied classical and Renaissance art, but was impressed by Georgia O'Keefe's "non-classical" approach after viewing O'Keefe's exhibition at the 231 Gallery. While she spent summers in Provincetown during the late 1930s and early 1940s where she was surrounded by artists, she only dabbled in painting and sculpture and lacked confidence in her artistic abilities.
After the death of her sister Sylvie in 1945, Weinstein took a leave of absence from teaching and spent time in New Mexico. Upon her return to New York she sought to capture the beauty of the New Mexico landscape in her painting. Her sister Eleanor suggested she take a free class led by Barnett Newman. In 1948, she took courses at the Subjects of the Artist School founded by Newman, William Baziotes, David Hare, Robert Motherwell, and Mark Rothko. The school was short-lived, but the experience helped propel Weinstein to retire from teaching in 1951 and focus solely on being an artist. She was initially a painter, but she began exploring ceramics and sculpture in 1969.
Weinstein died in 1989.