Lee Krasner

Modern Masters Series #15

by Robert Carleton Hobbs

Looks at the themes and styles of the abstract expressionist painter's works

Genres: Art, History

127 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1993

Reviews

[Aren Ritchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally picked this book up from my university’s library to skim for quotes to use in a paper I was writing about Lee Krasner. Even though I didn’t plan on reading the whole thing, the bits I did read were so interesting that I decided to sit down and read the rest once I finished my paper. This book really covers about everything you’d want to know about her. I’d recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in abstract art or women artists.

[Kallie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great study of Krasner's path and process as an artist. Krasner's paintings, changes in style, symbolism of form and color, emotional processes and expression of same, are discussed and analyzed in detail, so the reader comes away with insight into Krasner, and abstract expressionism. Biography itself focuses mainly on art, how life events play a part in her work.

[Ed Smiley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really 3 and a half stars, but you read art books often for the illustrations, and these are copious. The writing is somewhat cobbled together, and attempting to shoehorn Krasner into critical categories.

Lee Krasner, for the general reader who does not know this, was the wife of Jackson Pollock, as well as being an excellent abstract expressionist painter in her own right. That being said, will totally ignore that aspect, other than to note that examination of her work seems to indicate that influence went in both directions, Pollock's Easter and the Totem, a less typical work of his, seems to bear similarities to some of Krasner's earlier work. (I didn't really get that from the text, my own impression.)

Krasner had several interesting styles, and they are well illustrated and discussed: the "little image" paintings, which involved many many units, that are writing like and of modest scale, large bold abstract expressionist paintings, large paintings with extremely bold color combinations that fuse minimalism with abstract expressionism (some of these are among my favorites), and her collage/paintings.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lee Krasner was not only Jackson Pollock's wife, she was the better artist.