Lee Krasner, abstract expressionist artist

“I think all paintings are autobiographical.” Nothing is further from reality: Lee Krasner’s words reflect what his story is. Born in Brooklyn in 1908, to a Ukrainian Orthodox Jewish family, the woman we know today by her stage name was christened Lena, but Krasner was not late in coming. Against all stereotypes and social guidelines, and what’s more, against the norms governed by the family religion in which he was raised, He began expressing his desire to get out of the context in which the role of creative women was restricted And in art he found his ally of expression, his diary.

Over the years, she went from being Lina behind closed doors at home to being Leonor in her closest circle. And from Leonor, it came to Lee (the name with which he would sign his first paintings at school). There was no turning back. As a woman and artist, she had no choice but to study apart from men, and guided by her cathartic desire, She entered the Brass Union Women’s Art School, where she began to attract attention with her photographs. This would be just the first step in a career she herself was clear about at the age of 14, the age at which she began to make art visible not as a personal drive, but to perfect her technique on a professional level. The road as a painter will be eternal.

Constantly reinvents itself, playing with different techniques and between dancing collagesportraits and other works, he attended the Hans Hofmann School. Since then, her patron helped her get the motivation she needed and, guided by the inspiration of other painters like Pablo Picasso or Henri Matisse, she set out to create what would be one of the most valuable artistic munitions of an era. Hans Hofmann came to say of her that “it is so good that no one realizes that it was made by a woman”, which indicates the situation in which the artist’s role was at the time.

From Pollock’s Shadow to the Museums of the World

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but, When he met the famous artist Jackson Pollock in 1941, everything changed. The two fell in love, married four years later, and quickly moved into an old farmhouse in Springs, Long Island, where they lived together after their wedding.

At first I worked on the second floor of the house. Instead, he created in the larger space that was in the property’s barn. Everything was idyllic, and although they said he had a complex personality, they lived between his passion for gardening and his paintings. Just over a decade later, Bullock began to develop frequent bouts of alcoholism and living became unpleasant. So far she was the driver of the painter, pushed him. However, when she flew alone to Paris on a trip they were planning to take together, they called her and told her that her husband had passed away. He had died in a car accident on August 11, 1956, after driving at top speed, accompanied by his lover, Ruth Kligman.

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Despite the complexity of the situation and the correction it required, Krassner once again found refuge in his art. They say that in troubled times writers and poets create their best works. she He transferred his workspace to that previously occupied by the painter, transformed his chronic relief and insomnia into works, and created the collections that helped them shed Pollock’s moniker and be their own, One of the most relevant artists of Abstract Expressionism. Not only was it acclaimed by art critics, but there were also many cultural institutions (and still are) pulling their work to grace their walls.