Pearl Angrist was born in New York City in 1913 to Polish immigrants. Her grandfather, an acclaimed painter and sculptor in Poland, was a significant influence on her early artistic aspirations. Angrist's artistic talent was recognized at the age of twenty, when she was awarded the prestigious St. Gaudens Medal for Art, along with a scholarship to the Metropolitan Museum School of Art. Her education continued at the Art Students League, where she studied under George Bridgman, Kimon Nicolaides, George Pickens, and Jack Tworkov, who regarded her as his "prize student." Angrist further studied at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art and Columbia University’s School of Painting and Sculpture.
From 1933 to 1934, Angrist taught art at the Riverside Church School where she was highly regarded. Angrist divided her time between her personal and artistic commitments, living on Long Island with her husband, Dr. Louis Stern, and their two children, while maintaining an active presence exhibiting in New York. Angrist and her husband were also avid collectors of modern art, forming close friendships with notable artists such as Willem de Kooning and Arthur Kaufmann.
Throughout the 1950s, Angrist exhibited regularly in group shows and had a solo exhibition at the Crespi Gallery, New York, presenting a series of 16 oil paintings on paper, collectively known as her Modern Nudes series. Angrist exhibited with the Roko Gallery, S.A.G. Galleries, and Steindler Gallery, among others. During this time, Angrist was involved in the Silvermine Guild in New Canaan, Connecticut.