Fiercely Raw
Lee Krasner at Paul Kasmin NYC
Painted between 1959 and 1962, Krasner’s Umber Paintings on display at the Paul Kasmin Gallery in NYC are incredibly emotional exercises. This solo exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and focuses on these iconic works only and consists of twenty-four paintings. Krasner was experimenting here for the first time on large canvases.
The Umber Paintings were rendered during one of her most ambitious periods of creative production following the sudden and tragic loss of her husband, Jackson Pollock. Krasner moved into Pollock’s studio at their home in the Spring, East Hampton, and began in a newfound solitude to increase her scale and work on bigger canvases in a heightened painterly confidence and produced psychologically evocative work. Reflecting on the Umber Paintings in 1973, Krasner remarked: “My painting is so biographical, if anyone can take the trouble to read it.” It is so true. If you take the time – you can feel the anger, the grief, the turbulence, and a new freedom. You can also see the cathartic process unfold Krasner into becoming one of the most emotional, distinct and significant artists of the Abstract Expressionist era.
