Lee Krasner (American, 1908–1984)

Lena Krassner is the original name of Krasner who loves to be called Lenore and

eventually became Lee Krasner. Lee Krasner was a renowned Abstract Expressionist painter.

Lee Krasner was born on the 27th day of October in the year 1908. Her parents were

Russian-Jewish who migrated to Unites States to escape the Russo-Japanese War. Krasner has 5

siblings and she is the youngest and the only one to be born in the United States. She enrolled at

Washington Irving High School in New York City at the age of 14, where she studies studio art.

In 1925 she graduated from high school and was awarded a scholarship to attend the Women's

Art School of Cooper Union and eventually Krasner pursued more of art education at the

illustrious National Academy of Design, completing her course in 1932.

Krasner experienced early challenges in her life, she had trouble in graduating due to the

great depression in that time, but she didn’t give up and look for jobs to support her studies and

herself, she worked as waitress and a model to survive.

Despite of her challenges in her career, Krasner had a dream to work as a full-time artist

and her dream came true when she acquired a job in Works Progress Administration's Public

Works of Art Project. The government-funded Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress

Administration (WPA) that hires hundreds of artists who created paintings and murals and

sculptures to be found in municipal buildings, schools, and hospitals. Furthermore, many

community art centers in the country provided art classes for children and developing artists,

WPA sought to get back to work the unemployed Americans and to boost the morale of the

citizens. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's from New Deal art program helped Krasner to work

steadily for the WPA's Federal Art Project up until 1943, when the agency was dissolved.
 Krasner greatest works are Self Portrait in 1930, Seated Nude in 1940, Composition in

1949, and Cool White in 1959, Gaea in 1966

Self-portrait was painted by lee Krasner when she was just 22 years old, Self-Portrait

shows her skills in realism, Krasner painted Self-Portrait in order to level up as a student within

the National Academy of Design. Krasner chose to paint herself showing the image of a hard-

working artist who is confident in her skills which is shown in her hand by holding the paint

brush firmly. To capture her own reflection, she nailed a mirror to a tree to see the exact image

of her and worked on the painting throughout the summer. Although at first her teachers under-

appreciated Krasner and doubted the authenticity of her painting outdoors, that results for her not

being promoted in her drawing class.

Seated Nude in 1940 is Showing her appreciation to Picasso, Seated Nude exhibits Cubist

elements such as Krasner's non-realist command of geometrical. In this painting it shows

Krasner’s growing talent and potential with the way she uses the charcoal and how she applied it.

Composition During the mid to late 1940s, Krasner worked hard to undo her Cubist style

career and to more fully express her inner self. This work is part of the Little Image series of 31

paintings (1946-50) that represent her first all-over abstractions. This deep connection to her

inner-self full length covering of the canvas stand as key turning points in her painting career.

Krasner's Cool White in 1959. After Pollock's death (Krasner’s husband), Krasner used

her late husband’s studio that allows her to work on large scales painting. Krasner created Cool

White during the difficult time after her husband sudden death, during which she was dealing

with the increasing demands of pollocks’ properties and the rapid cancelation of an exhibition

organized by Clement Greenberg. Krasner’s painted numerous painting in late 1950’s because of
her difficulties in sleeping (insomnia), painting became her remedy. By working at night, she

realized that she needs knock out color altogether because she couldn't deal with color except in

daylight. Cool White stands as Krasner's own interpretation of large scale, broad-gestured,

intuitive painting for which Pollock is better known.

The Gaea 1966. According to The Art Story (2009) Krasner's signature vibrant use of

color, lifelong interest in the abundance of nature, and joyous sensibility were her key

contributions to the often gloomy, deeply serious post-war abstract tendencies of her peers. Thru

her paintings, Krasner worked through her deep anguish and anger after Jackson Pollock's death.

Later, she turned to nature to create large-scale, brilliantly colored canvases that show the

influence of Henri Matisse and the Fauvists, demonstrating her connection to early-20th-century

modernism. Inspired by the natural world, Krasner painted large, floral, and organic shapes, alive

with color and pulsating with new energy. The piece's title refers to the Mother Earth goddess of

Greek mythology, representative of her continued interest in ancient civilizations as artistic

sources. Her creative output of the 1960s expresses a sense of rebirth and elation after her

emotional trauma and struggles of the prior decades.

Those time the community that Krasner’s belongs to experienced great depression, and

through the Public Works of Art Project she exhibits her talent in painting when she was hired

with the hundred more artist that was intended to jumpstart the economy. Lee Krasner was

married to Jackson Pollock as famous abstract expressionist artist, because of their similarity as

an artist, Krasner was able to practice and developed her craft, but they are not working together,

and she can’t really express herself very well. Her marriage with pollock was not easy, her

husband was a drunkard and sometimes rough at her. Even if she was married to Pollock, she

wasn’t famous, Lee Krasner was always known as Pollock’s wife/ Pollocks widow, she always
remained at the shadow or her husband who was an eminent in his style and at the era, it’s hard

for her to be labeled as just a Pollock’s wife and never an artist knowing she has the skills, the

passion and the ambitions. Her husband is the reason why she is not as famous she was always

outshined and set aside, but when her husband died that was the time that Krasner was really

expresses and practices her skills fully. After his husband’s death she finally receiving the

recognitions that she deserves as a leader of abstract expressionist. Her career wasn’t a smooth

adventure until now she and her works are doubted by many people.