Lee Krasner

Lee Krasner – Life, Art, and Legacy

Lee Krasner (October 27, 1908 – June 19, 1984) was a pioneering American abstract expressionist artist. This article explores her life, evolving style, influence, and enduring legacy.

Introduction

Lee Krasner is one of the major figures in 20th-century American art whose work helped define Abstract Expressionism. Often overshadowed by her husband, Jackson Pollock, her paintings, collages, and artistic transformations reveal a restless creative spirit and a singular voice. Over her nearly 60-year career, Krasner grappled with questions of identity, artistic autonomy, gender, and innovation—ultimately earning recognition as a bold, independent force in modern art.

In what follows, we trace her early life, artistic development, major works, themes, and lessons that her life holds for artists and admirers alike.

Early Life and Family

Lee Krasner was born Lena Krassner on October 27, 1908, in New York City, to a family of Russian-Jewish immigrants.

Her upbringing left an imprint on her worldview: she later recalled rejecting certain religious norms, particularly those she saw as limiting for women in Orthodox practices.

Youth and Education

Krasner’s formal art education began in the late 1920s and early 1930s. She studied at:

• The Women’s Art School at Cooper Union (on scholarship)

• National Academy of Design (from about 1928 to 1932)

Her early works were more representational—still lifes, figures—before she moved toward abstraction.

In 1937, she began studying under Hans Hofmann, whose modernist and color-theory teachings influenced her shift toward abstraction and the “push-and-pull” dynamic of forms.

Career and Achievements

Early Career & WPA Years

During the Great Depression, Krasner supported herself by working with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project, assisting in mural enlargement and public art projects.

She also created collages and war-service displays during WWII (for example, windows in department stores) under government patronage. American Abstract Artists group, and through that and other circles she met many figures of the New York avant-garde.

Marriage to Jackson Pollock & Mutual Influence

Krasner met Jackson Pollock in the early 1940s (they both exhibited in a group show). 1945 and moved to Springs, Long Island, where they maintained separate studios (though their lives and work inevitably intersected).

While she often supported Pollock’s growing fame, Krasner did not abandon her work. She continued to experiment, revise, destroy, and reinvent.

Artistic Evolution & Key Periods

Krasner is known less for a single consistent style and more for evolution, reinvention, and restlessness. Her career can be seen in phases:

• Little Image period (mid- to late 1940s): dense, web-like, hieroglyphic or mosaic abstractions, often in black-and-white or limited palette.

• 1950s collages & color abstractions: she began cutting up older drawings (including sometimes Pollock’s) and recombining them in new compositions.

• Earth Green series (mid-1950s to late 1950s): these works often contain organic, anatomical, plant-like forms with visceral, emotional undercurrents.

• Later works (1960s onward): looser brushwork, more color, more openness in composition, continued mixing of collage and painting techniques.

She was also extremely critical of her own work, often destroying or cutting up pieces she judged unsatisfactory, which means the extant body of her work is relatively limited compared to her output.

Her catalog raisonné (published in 1995) records approximately 599 known works.

Recognition & Exhibitions

Krasner received growing recognition late in life and posthumously. After her death, MoMA mounted a retrospective that affirmed her important position in the New York School.

Her estate helped establish the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, which supports artists and preserves her and Pollock’s legacies. Pollock-Krasner House & Study Center in Springs is open to the public.

In recent decades, exhibitions and scholarship have re-evaluated her work, increasingly placing her as a central figure, not just “Mrs. Pollock.”

Historical Context & Milestones

Lee Krasner’s life and art intersected with important currents in American art and culture:

1. Abstract Expressionism / New York School
   Krasner was part of the first wave of American artists whose expressionistic abstraction challenged European dominance in modern art.

2. Gender & Recognition
   In her era, the art world was heavily dominated by male critics, galleries, and artists. Krasner’s career was often framed in relation to Pollock, and her own ambitions were constrained by expectations of marriage, support roles, and critical biases.

3. Post-War Art Environment & Institutional Growth
   Krasner’s career unfolded during the growth of New York as a global art center, with expanding museum infrastructures, collector interest, and institutional support. She also worked amidst the challenges of the Cold War, cultural debates, and shifting artistic paradigms.

4. Artistic Autonomy & Legacy Control
   After Pollock’s death, Krasner exercised control over his legacy and her own, navigating the commercial and curatorial demands of the art world. Her role as executor gave her both responsibility and influence over how Abstract Expressionism was historicized.

Legacy and Influence

Lee Krasner’s legacy is rich and multifaceted:

• Pioneer of transformation: Rather than staying within one style, Krasner’s willingness to reinvent and experiment exemplifies the vitality of creative restlessness.

• Recognition of women artists: She stands as a powerful symbol of how women have been marginalized in art history—and how that narrative can be revised.

• Artistic integrity: Her critical rigor, even to the point of self-destruction of work, shows uncompromising standards.

• Support for future generations: Through the Pollock-Krasner Foundation she helped establish, many artists have received grants, making her impact persist beyond her lifetime.

• Expanding narratives of Abstract Expressionism: Scholarship now more frequently includes Krasner as a central rather than peripheral figure.

Personality, Philosophy & Quotes

Krasner was known to be fierce, private, and deeply introspective. She once said:

“I like a canvas to breathe and be alive. Be alive is the point.”

Her approach emphasized internal voice and organic process rather than rigid preconceptions:

“I do not force myself, ever.... I have regard for the inner voice.”

Her philosophy suggests that art should emerge from instinct, intuition, and the struggle to reveal something vital. Her process involved deconstruction, revision, and courage to let go.

Though fewer pithy “famous quotes” exist compared to writers or public figures, her work and interviews reflect a constant tension between control and spontaneity, anonymity and recognition, destruction and creation.

Lessons from Lee Krasner

From Krasner’s life and art, we can draw several lessons:

1. Embrace change and evolution
   Krasner never rested in one mode. She teaches that growth often involves destruction, reinvention, and embracing uncertainty.

2. Prioritize internal standards over external validation
   Her decision to reject or destroy work that did not meet her standards shows a commitment to integrity, not fame.

3. Navigate legacy with agency
   Krasner’s post-Pollock years forced her to protect both his and her own legacy—but she did so with agency, asserting her work rather than letting it be defined by his.

4. Resist being confined by roles or labels
   She refused to remain simply “the wife of a famous painter.” Her life suggests that artistic identity must claim space, even amid imposing external narratives.

5. Support future voices
   Her establishment of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation shows how legacy can become active support for new creators, not just retrospective honor.

Conclusion

Lee Krasner (October 27, 1908 – June 19, 1984) remains a towering, although long underrecognized, figure in 20th-century art. She was not simply the spouse of Jackson Pollock, but a formidable artist in her own right—relentlessly inventive, self-critical, and expressive.

Her life’s arc—from a daughter of immigrants in Brooklyn to a pillar of abstract modernism—teaches us about resilience, autonomy, and the cost and rewards of pursuing a singular vision in a world not always ready to see it.

If you’d like, I can also gather lesser-known letters, interviews, or critical essays about her work to deepen your understanding. Do you want me to fetch those?