Seated Nude

1937–1940

Studies with Hans Hofmann

She studies with Hans Hofmann, where young American artists encounter European modernism, and the influence of Cubism grows in her work; her first abstract canvases appear in these years. Hofmann, who was sparing with praise, once told her that one would never know such a work was done by a woman, and Mondrian remarked on her strong inner rhythm, which she must never lose.

1940

Joins the American Abstract Artists

She typically exhibits cubist still lifes in a black-gridded cloisonné style, heavily impastoed and gestural; through the group she meets future abstract expressionists Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, Adolph Gottlieb, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still and Bradley Walker Tomlin.

1940s

Collages for wartime propaganda

Soon after one of her mural proposals is approved for the WNYC radio station, the WPA becomes War Services and all art must serve war propaganda; Krasner keeps working for it and makes collages that are displayed in the windows of nineteen department stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

1940s–1950s

Signing “L.K.” instead of a name

She often does not sign her works at all, signs with the gender-neutral initials “L.K.”, or blends her signature into the painting so as not to emphasize that she is a woman and the wife of another painter.

1942

Meets Jackson Pollock

After both are shown at the McMillen gallery, Krasner, intrigued by Pollock’s work and by the fact that she does not know who he is, goes to his apartment to meet him. She later introduces him to Willem de Kooning, Peggy Guggenheim and Clement Greenberg, while losing interest in the hard-edge geometric style of her abstract-artist group.