Modernist Beginnings
Paul Kasmin Gallery highlights the unrealized WPA mural studies of Lee Krasner
Paul Kasmin Gallery highlights the unrealized WPA mural studies of Lee Krasner
In 1937, Lee Krasner was assigned to finish a mural by Willem de Kooning, who was dismissed from his Works Progress Administration project because he was not a United States citizen. Krasner didn’t finish the project, but the experience influenced her own designs for the space. Mural Studies at Paul Kasmin Gallery brings together eight of Krasner’s rarely exhibited, small-scale studies for an unrealized WPA mural. Gallery directors Laura Lester and Eric Gleason say,“kasmin Gallery is honored to present an important and rare glimpse into Lee Krasner’s early modernist
beginnings, which coincide with a watershed moment in American visual history.we are indebted to the Pollockkrasner foundation for giving us the opportunity to explore this fascinating aspect of Krasner’s oeuvre.”
The gouache on paper studies on view were created in 1940, just as the artist began exploring abstract forms. On flat backgrounds, the geometric and biomorphic forms dance off the page in vivid colors.the same designated window and doors spaces appear in each study, suggesting she had a specific, unknown space in mind while she was working. Evidence of her 1937 foray into murals is clear, with de Kooning’s interest in Fernand Léger and British abstractionist Ben Nicholson reflected in the studies.
A critical figure in the first generation of abstract expressionist painters, Krasner’s early art classes with Hans Hofmann proved to be formative in the maturation of her style. In the 1930s and ’40s, Krasner integrated herself fully into the Newyork art scene, running in contemporary circles that included Jackson Pollock, who eventually became her husband. During their marriage, she created some of her most recognizable work, including her Little Image series of paintings developed in the late ’40s.
The small works on display at Kasmin provide rare insight into Krasner’s year of transition toward gestural abstraction, but are also historically significant as a window into the era of the Works Progress Administration. From 1935 until its closure in 1942, the WPA fostered the early careers of many 20th century artists, commissioning tens of thousands of public artworks during its short tenure.
Mural Studies opens on September 13 and remains on view through October 27.