“I like a canvas to breathe and be alive. Be alive is the point.”- Lee Krasner
Lee Krasner, a dynamic Abstract Expressionist artist, for years, remained overshadowed by the works of her husband Jackson Pollock. Over the span of 50 years, her works suggest perpetual, restless reinvention, encompassing portraits, Cubist drawings, collages, assemblages, and large-scale abstract paintings.
Lee Krasner and Her Legacy
Born in 1908 as Lenore Krassner to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York. Krasner decided at an early age to pursue art professionally. She studied at the Women’s Art School of Cooper Union, the National Academy of Design, and the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts, where she was exposed to cubism and other European modernist movements.
Throughout the 1930s, Krasner worked for the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project, creating murals for public buildings. She became associated with the emerging New York School of Abstract Expressionists in the 1940s which proved a turning point to her career. In 1942, She met Pollock later in 1945 got married, establishing a creative partnership that influenced both their artistic practices.
Krasner entered one of her most productive periods, after Pollock’s death in 1956. Her work evolved through various phases, such as the “Little Image” paintings of the late 1940s with their hieroglyphic-like symbols or even her expansive and gestural “Earth Green” series and the bold, rhythmic compositions of her later years.
Krasner’s work is distinguished by her willingness to repeatedly deconstruct and remake her artistic identity. Unlike many of her contemporaries who developed signature styles, she continually went on to experiment, often cutting up canvases to create collages, which led to her artistic growth and played a role in establishing a marketable brand.
Despite being majorly known as Pollock’s wife, retrospectives at institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art have cemented her position as a significant figure in American art history in her own right.
Image Courtesy of Whitney Museum of American Art
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