Lee Krasner


Lee Krasner, 1956. Photograph by Maurice Berezov. Courtesy of Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center.

Born in Brooklyn, Lee Krasner studied at The Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design. From 1935-1943 she worked for the WPA Federal Art Project. In 1937 she enrolled in the Hans Hofmann School of Art and joined the American Abstract Artists. After she and Pollock married and moved to Springs, she developed her Little Image series, a highly original allover approach to abstraction, and a series of innovative collages made of recycled earlier paintings and drawings. Her later works include exuberant gestural abstractions and more hard-edge imagery, as well as another collage series in the mid 1970s. She died at age 75 in New York Hospital.

Primary Medium: Painting

Primary Stylistic Term: Abstract Expressionism

HAHS Affiliations: Krasner was married to fellow artist Jackson Pollock. Pollock and Krasner were friends of Victor and Mabel D’Amico and visited their Amagansett property.

Fun Facts: Lee created a mosaic mural for the facade of 2 Broadway, a Manhattan office building, in 1958-59. The Oscar-winning biopic “Pollock,” starring Ed Harris and Marcia Gay Harden, was partly filmed on location at the Pollock-Krasner site in 1999.

Recommended Publications: Lee Krasner: A Biography by Gail Levin (William Morrow, 2011)