For International Women’s Day we would like to put on the spotlight Lee (Lena) Krasner, 1908 – 1984.
Krasner is a abstract expressionist painter.
Krasner’s art was overshadowed by her husband career, the painter Jackson Pollock.
After her husband died in 1956 Krasner used his studio and started focusing on her own artwork. Thanks to feminist movement, Krasner received her recognition and became one of the few female artists to have a retrospective show at the MOMA.
Krasner was born in Brooklyn to a Russian-Jewish immigrates.
Krasner struggled to support herself as a waitress during the great depression. In 1935 she joined the federal art project. Her job was to enlarge artist’s designs on public murals.
Lee Krasner studied Cubism at the Hans Hofmann’s studio. She left the studio from two reasons: she couldn’t understand Hofmann’s rejects because Hofmann was a German speaker. Also, she wanted to paint abstracts and Hofamann was more of a cubist.
Krasner saw Pollock’s work for the first time in 1942 and was highly influenced by his paintings.
On 1946 Krasner began working on her Little image series and early collage images in 1951.
1956 – The green series, after her husband death, her canvases became larger painted with liberated lined of self-expression.
1959 Krasner created the umber series and the in 1960 the Primary series that brought a fresh breath of calmer and colorful paintings of floral shapes.
In 1984, the New York Times said the retrospective show: “clearly defines Krasner’s place in the New York School.”
