Lee Krasner - A Great Woman Artist

[surreal]

Hi~
IMHO, Lee Krasner was a great woman artist.
She was married to Jackson Pollock for many years.
Her art and career flourished after the death of Jackson Pollock.

I just finished reading a book about her art by Barbara Rose.
Here is a link to info about her and her art:

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/krasner_lee.html
:D

[mame]

Surreal -
I met Barbara Rose when she came to a university I attended. She showed a video she had made of an interview with Lee Krasner on a National Endowments for the Arts grant I think.

As I recall it was about her first one woman big time New York exhibition after Pollock's death - can't remember the dates but maybe late 80's/early 90's?

I understand it is available to rent only for college teaching use.

So glad she was finally given her due before her own death!

[surreal]

Hi Mame~
How lucky that you met Barbara Rose and saw the interview with Lee Krasner on video!

:)

[El_Elegante]

I like some of Krasners work better than pollocks. She could paint.

[AndyRichardson]

After seeing the Pollock movie, Lee was elevated to sainthood in my book. As portrayed in the movie, it seems that Lee was the brains, and Pollock was the ego starved experimenter. In other words, Pollock came up with the "pond scum" pattern splatterings, but Lee was the one who put it all in context with the history of painting. Would have loved to be a 'fly on the wall' during their time together to really find out how they discussed art.

[AndyRichardson]

Tell us about the book. Did it go into Krasners painting philosophy?

[surreal]

Hi~
The book includes little info about Lee's personal life. It isn't in the least bit "gossipy".
It really doesn't go into her painting philosophy.
The book focuses on the way her painting evolved over time.
One wonderful thing about the book is the selection of paintings reproduced in it, which pointed up the ways in which Krasner's work changed over time.

If you love Krasner's painting, I recommend reading this book.
:)

[G.L. Hoff]

I saw the travelling retrospective of Krasner's work a year or so ago and liked it very much. Indeed she could paint. As to sainthood, probably. Anyone who could put up with the crap Jack Pollock dished out for longer than an hour probably deserves that title.

[AndyRichardson]

Interesting pair, Pollock and Krasner!
You know, Carol Gilligan wrote about gender differences in moral development in criticism of Kohlberg's theories. To me, she emphasized the role that engagement with palpable real-life personalities, and not-all-together values, which others act upon, result in an ethics of Caring by women, more than by the insular attitude which men seem to adopt. This is in distinction from an ethics of Rights within the realm of autonomous individuals. Anyway, it seems interesting that Pollack was characterized early on as representing the American character of rugged individualism..to be called an "American Action" painter by the critic Harold Rosenberg. So, he epitomizes the individualist pole, while Krasner epitomizes the engaged/caring pole. This gets a little deeper..Krasner had to deal with her Jewishness and loss of ethnic identity in the face of reports of the Holocaust. In her paintings she often depicted some sort of deeply-embedded-in-time hieratic-like writing, which some have interpreted as her way of connecting with her ancient Jewish heritage, again emphasizing a deep sense of engagement or connectedness (which later poststructuralists recognized as totally dependent upon language..of "speaking systems"). Meanwhile, Pollock was doing his paintings as an extension of his previous Jungian art therapy sessions, trying all the while to avoid the anxiety which comes all too painful for him during engagement with others, but staying totally in the flow of his painting -- as a sort of self-satisfying catharsis with his own individual impulses, trying to remain oblivious about the rest of the world. The two of them were trapped in their own little mental web, HE being impulsive and self-involved, HER being his baby sitter and enabler, trying to keep it all together.
The high point to all this tragic entrapment is that their art synchronized with their personalities so well. Its hard to imagine them painting in any other way! How many of us can say that our art work is really expressive of the core of our being--taking a cliche metaphor?--and not just a journal of our drift from one artistic diversion to another?

[Chadda]

Hello Andy, however dysfunctional it was, and BOY was it dysfunctional, IMHO Jackson Pollock would never have made it without the work Of Lee Krasner on his behalf. Lee believed that Jackson had the potential to be great and therefore led the direction of his fate. And bless her heart for putting up with all of his S$%^.

In that day and age, that was just about all women were permitted to do. Oh, and have kids, too!

[Shana30]

After seeing the Pollock movie, Lee was elevated to sainthood in my book. As portrayed in the movie, it seems that Lee was the brains, and Pollock was the ego starved experimenter. In other words, Pollock came up with the "pond scum" pattern splatterings, but Lee was the one who put it all in context with the history of painting. Would have loved to be a 'fly on the wall' during their time together to really find out how they discussed art.

Hi all,
Does anyone know the quote on Lee Krasner's wall or the author it was from?
Thanks

[hillrune]

Can you imagine the benefit of living and breathing art if your partner is also a working artist? I believe that artists need helpmates! Whether they are artists or not.

[paintergirl]

I am glad to see this thread brought to the top, I will be looking for this book on Krasner! :D

[cabbage1]

After all of the above it's kind of amusing to think we're talking of a great woman artist .. I think WC should perhaps consider gender based areas where the true merits of artists might be discussed in terms of the natural superiority of their maleness or whether or not they go ok as accomplished female dilettantes