Artworks

Lee Krasner American: 1908 – 1984 A key figure in the evolution of twentieth-century American Art, Lee Krasner is one of the few women associated with the New York School in the 1940s and ’50s and one of few female artists to have been given a retrospective exhibition at MoMA, New York (which opened a few months after the artist’s death in 1984). Krasner’s extensive career spanned six decades. Married to Jackson Pollock (1912 – 1956), she is credited with being the chief proponent of his art, dedicating much of her time guiding her husband towards his signature style while her own early career was eclipsed by his rise to fame. Krasner lived to see her work celebrated in its own right, yet its ambition, individuality and innovation have been more widely recognised – and gained significant new audiences – in the decades since her death. The Farthest Point, 1981, is a key example of a group of late works from the artist’s Solstice Series which, as described by the artist, were prompted by listening to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. This in turn prompted Krasner to consider the changing, cyclical nature of the seasons as well as her own work. To create The Farthest Point, Krasner combined fragments of earlier works – parts of a 1970 lithographic print, The Megaphones, and an umber canvas from the early 1960s. The result is an all-over composition of angular and curved forms, gestural and calligraphic marks, in which ideas of spontaneity, reflection and renewal are held together in a rhythmic dance.