Lee Krasner
American, 1908 - 1984Happy Lady, 1963
On view
Oil on cotton duck
Dimensions58 × 75 3/4 in.
Framed: 59 1/2 × 77 1/4 in.
Purchased with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts Museum Purchase Grant and the Samuel and Alma Catsman Foundation, 1978.59
In the past, Krasner’s significant contribution to art has been overlooked for many reasons but gender politics seems to have played the primary role. She is often described first as the wife of Jackson Pollock, a well-known Abstract Expressionist and second as an innovative artist. Also, the perceptions and realities of simply being a female artist were an obstacle. Even one of her teachers remarked, “This study is so good you would not know that it was done by a woman.”
Lee Krasner was a gestural painter. Her abstract compositions are rhythmic and gestural. They demonstrate the process of applying the paint to the canvas. In relationship to the times, Krasner’s role and contribution to the development of modern art takes on even more significance. Because of her marriage to Pollock, her work was seen by critics and other artists, and was eventually appreciated for its own merits.
