Lee Krasner: Living Colour, Exhibition, Barbican Centre, London: 30 May 2019 - 1 September 2019

Born in Brooklyn in 1908 in a family of immigrants from  Russia, Lee Krasner went to Washington Irving High School (the only school in New York to offer an art course for girls, at that time) before studying at the National Academy of Design. She then joined the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts. She  was also a member of the American Abstract Artists and became a friend to many leading artists of the day including Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline.

In 1945, Krasner married Jackson Pollock and they moved to Springs, Long Island. And  after Pollock’s tragic death in a car crash in 1956, Krasner claimed her husband’s studio as her own,  allowing her to work for the first time on large canvas tacked to the wall. The result was remarkable:  the ‘Umber’ and ‘Primary’ series paintings, in which she explores biomorphic form and colour, are some of her most celebrated works. Examples on show include ‘The Guardian,’ 1960; ‘Happy Lady’, 1963; ‘Icarus,’ 1964; and ‘Siren’, 1966.

The exhibition celebrates Krasner’s spirit for invention and innovation including self-portraits; charcoal life drawings; original photographs of her proposed retail store window displays and her acclaimed ‘Little Image’ paintings from the 1940s.

The display also features collages made with her earlier works and a selection of her most impressive large-scale abstract paintings. This work is accompanied by rare photography and film from the period, in an elegant exhibition designed by David Chipperfield Architects.

Lee Krasner’s ‘Living Colour’ draws from more than 50 international collections as well as from many private collections. Many works are being exhibited in Europe for the first time, such as the monumental ‘Combat’(1965), which is over 4 metres long, and has traveled from the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia.

Lee Krasner’s work has  featured in museum collections around the world and she also was one of the few women to have had a solo show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, in 1984; but she has not received the recognition that she deserves in Europe, so this is a great opportunity for you  to get to know the captivating impact of her work.

The exhibition is curated and organised by Barbican Centre, London, in collaboration with Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern and Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.