Lee Krasner, 1908-1984

By Alice Lindman

White Squares, from the series Little Images, c.1948, enamel and oil on canvas

A key figure in post-war New York, Lee Krasner stood not only as a key pioneer of abstract expressionism, but also as a trail blazer for female liberation in the American art scene. Krasner was born into a Jewish-orthodox family, raised speaking a mixture of Russian, Yiddish, and English. The artist’s rebellious streak began to show early on. She renounced religion for its scriptural treatment of women in her teens, a stance taken by many proponents of female empowerment in the early twentieth century following the gaining of women’s suffrage in 1920. She began her artistic career by studying at Washington Irving High School in Manhattan, the only institution in the city that offered arts courses for women at the time, and later went on to study at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design. It was visits to the Museum of Modern Art, where Krasner saw the works of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, that inspired her art to veer into the modernist sphere. Her fascination with modernism eventually led her to Hans Hofmann and his avant-garde school, which furthered her education in cubism and enabled her deconstruction of the human form.

After becoming fully engaged in the New York art scene, Krasner crossed paths with Jackson Pollock, who she would eventually marry in 1945, which would undoubtedly change the projection of her career forever. Although their marriage was a tumultuous one, the union was undeniably founded on mutual cooperation and artistic craft, helping both individuals to create an extraordinary body of work in their years together. But while Pollock gifted himself a massive studio space in their barn, Krasner was confined to the bedroom of their house and forced to only use just a small table or the floor for her work, making the partnership less than fully equal.

It was in the confided space of these four walls where her famous collection, Little Images, was born. Arguably her most noteworthy contributions to Abstract Expressionism, these works were defined by thick impasto and repeated abstract symbols. She tended to emphasize the limited two-dimensionality of the picture plane with manipulation of the surface tension, formulating illusionistic forms that seemed to simultaneously move forwards and backwards on the canvas, the continuous flow of movement reinforced by a nonhierarchic order of line, shape, and colour. White Squares (c.1948) is a prime example Little Images, reflecting her interest in linguistic forms. The densely packed squares evoke Hebrew letters, a theme fostered by her Jewish upbringing, when she was educated in the language. This practice fostered a lifelong interest in dissociating meaning from written symbols.

The Seasons, 1957, oil and house paint on canvas

Krasner and Pollock’s life together ended abruptly when, on August 11th, 1956, Pollock died in a traffic collision. Krasner remained a bearer of her late husband’s legacy even years after his demise, the artist making it her responsibility to uphold his reputation. Despite this emotional burden, Krasner’s artistic output never waned. With access to Pollock’s former studio, she was finally able to work on a grander scale and her paintings swelled in size, her largest work, The Seasons (1957), reaching the staggering dimensions of 235x517cm. In this painting, Krasner intertwines bold strokes of black with swashes of pink. Her rhythmic markings allude to female and botanical forms, allegorical meditations on the life cycle. The monumental size of her art reflects her immense grief – a sorrow so great that she doubted whether she would ever paint again. Yet, as she famously remarked, when "the question came up whether one would continue painting at all, I guess this was my answer.”

Towards the end of the 1950s, Krasner finally began to receive the recognition she was due. While still being active within feminist movements, Krasner had her first solo exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery in London in 1965 and another one at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1975. She rose higher into the cosmos of fame when she partook in the critically acclaimed 1981 New York exhibition: ''Krasner/ Pollock: A Working Relationship,''. Krasner eventually passed away in 1984, just months before her retrospective opened at MoMA, forever securing her a legacy worthy of HASTA’s Born this Week and worthy of global remembrance.

Bibliography 

“Lee Krasner.” Kasmin Gallery. Accessed 21 October 2024. https://www.kasmingallery.com/artists/3-lee-krasner/.

“Lee Krasner | White Squares.” Whitney Museum of American Art. Accessed 21 October 2024. https://whitney.org/collection/works/504.

Nemser, Cindy. “Lee Krasner’s Paintings, 1946–49.” Artforum. December 1, 1973. https://www.artforum.com/features/lee-krasners-paintings-1946-49-210203/.

Peiffer, Prudence. “Lee Krasner: American, 1908–1984.” The Museum of Modern Art. Accessed 21 October 2024. https://www.moma.org/artists/3240.