Lee Krasner Paintings

American, 1908-1984

A pioneer of Abstract Expressionism, artist Lee Krasner’s pivotal role in that movement and her exceptional contributions to it were largely overshadowed by those of her male contemporaries — in particular, Jackson Pollock, whom she married in 1945.

Lee Krasner was born Lena Krassner in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian-Jewish refugee parents. She attended the Women’s Art School of Cooper Union and the esteemed National Academy of Design, graduating in 1932 during the height of the Great Depression. Krasner supported herself as a model and cocktail waitress until 1934, when she began painting murals for the Works Progress Administration, which kept her steadily employed until the agency closed in 1943. During that time, Krasner studied under Hans Hofmann and became a fixture on the New York art scene, joining the American Abstract Artists and the Artists Union.

A World War II–era commission had Krasner overseeing the creation of 19 pro-war store window displays in New York City. She recruited a handful of artists she dubbed her “misfits” for the project. Among them were Willem de Kooning and Pollock.

Throughout their 11-year marriage, Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner had an indelible influence on each other. While he painted in the bright, expansive barn studio, she worked in a small bedroom, where she produced her “Little Images” series, small-scale works loaded with paint, today considered among her most important contributions to Abstract Expressionism.

Lee Krasner’s art includes rich mosaics, Cubist drawings, assemblages and the epochal collages she produced in 1954–55, which incorporated scraps from her and Pollock’s discarded work and echoed the striking palettes of Matisse, one of her heroes. Krasner’s collages remain among her most celebrated pieces.

After Pollock’s death in 1956, Krasner moved into his barn studio, where she created large-scale paintings, including the 17-foot-wide The Seasons. She had her long-overdue first solo exhibition at London’s Whitechapel Gallery in 1965, and her second in 1975 at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Those and other major solo exhibitions finally brought her the recognition she deserved for her contributions to the art world.

In 1978, Krasner was given her rightful place next to the likes of Mark Rothko, de Kooning and Pollock in the Whitney’s exhibition “Abstract Expressionism: The Formative Years.” Her U.S. retrospective opened at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 1983 and ended at the Museum of Modern Art in New York after her death in 1984.

Lee Krasner’s paintings continue to be in high demand. In 2019, her 1960 work The Eye Is the First Circle sold at auction for $11.7 million, breaking her 2017 auction record of $5.5 million.

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Artist: Lee Krasner

Lee KrasnerWater No. 5 - Post War Abstract Gouache on Paper, 1969, 1969

$195,000

Water No. 5 - Post War Abstract Gouache on Paper, 1969

By Lee Krasner

Located in Palm Desert, CA

"Water No. 5" is an abstract gouache on howell paper painting by Lee Krasner in 1969. The artwork is 12 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches and is 18 1/4 x 15 1/4 x 1 1/4 inches with the frame, weigh...

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20th Century Post-War Lee Krasner Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Sherron FrancisYellow Tail I, 1979

$24,000

H 40 in W 76.5 in

Yellow Tail I

By Sherron Francis

Located in Austin, TX

Waterline Fine Art, Austin, TX is pleased to present the following work: Acrylic and mixed media on canvas. Signed, titled, and dated verso. 40 x 76.5 in. 41.75 x 78.25 in. (framed) Custom framed in a solid, unfinished maple floater. Provenance Watson/de Nagy & Company, Houston Private Collection, New York Sherron Francis was born in 1940, in Downers Grove, IL outside of Chicago. She originally enrolled at the University of Oklahoma, but later transferred to the Kansas City Art Institute to focus more on art. Initially, Francis' practice was focused on figurative art, with visiting professor and renowned modern realist Philip Pearlstein remarking on Francis’ draftsman acumen. In the early 1960s, art dealers and gallerists from New York would visit the Institute to entice promising artists by offering scholarships and financial aid. Because such financial arrangements were only made for men, Francis had to persuade the school's leadership to allow for women to also be eligible for merit-based aid. Her advocacy was successful, and she ultimately graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1963. She would then proceed to obtain her MFA from the University of Indiana, before assuming a teaching position at Eastern Michigan University. In 1968, with only $300 on hand, Francis moved to 16 Waverly Place in SoHo, New York. The neighborhood was a hotbed for young AbEx artists of the day, and she quickly befriended the likes of Peter Reginato, Walter Darby Bannard, Michael Steiner, Peter Young, Peter Bradley...

Category

1970s Post-War Lee Krasner Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Harold WinerAbstract Expressionist Original Gouache on paper Collage style of de Kooning, 1984

$1,680Sale Price|20% Off

H 30 in W 40 in D 0.25 in

Abstract Expressionist Original Gouache on paper Collage style of de Kooning

Located in Soquel, CA

Abstract Expressionist Original Gouache on paper and Collage Abstract Gouache and Paper Collage by Harold Winer (American, 1913-2006). Image 30"H x 40"W Slat with white paint .25" ...

Category

1980s Post-War Lee Krasner Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Illustration Board, Laid Paper

Joyce KozloffWarm Beach (#108), 1970

$48,000

$6,500

H 60 in W 96 in D 1.5 in

Assemblage with Checkerboard on Canvas

By Michael Pauker

Located in Soquel, CA

Large-scale abstract assemblage by Bay Area artist Michael Pauker (American, b.1957). Unsigned, but was acquired with a collection of his work. Unframed. Circa 2010. Canvas size...

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