Lee KrasnerAmerican, 1908–1984Still Life
May one see it?
Not receiving at present
The Museum of Modern Art
New York, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- Source
- The museum
Particulars
- Accession number
- 18.1977
In the catalog
Sources
- The Museum of Modern Art
- Image: The Museum of Modern Art — © the artist or rights holder
Meanwhile, in the life of Lee Krasner
The whole life1937–1940
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.
