Lot 115 : LEE KRASNER (1912-1984)

Lee Lenore Krasner - 1908-1984

Auction Location: United States of America - 2002
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Description:

Composition signed 'LEE' (lower right) oil on canvas 32 x 22 in. (81.3 x 55.9 cm.) Painted circa 1948 PROVENANCE Mrs. Milton W. King. Robert Frank, New York. Meredith Long & Co., Houston. Harriet Griffin Fine Arts, New York. Compass Rose, Chicago. Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1986. LITERATURE M. Amset, "Art Works Inspire Room Decorations," newspaper and exact date unknown (probably September 1948) (illustrated). A. B. Louchheim, "Gallery, Decorator and Work of Art," The New York Times, 1948. "House That 'Lives' Theme of Exhibit," The New York Times, 20 September 1948, p. 22. L. Maxon, "Paintings Used to Add Color to Home Decor," World-Telegram, 20 September 1948. A. Pringle, "Modern Houses Inside and Out," New York Herald Tribune, 20 September 1948. E. Landau, "Lee Krasner's Early Career, Part Two: The 1940's," Arts Magazine, November 1981, p. 84, fig. 12 (illustrated). E. Landau, Lee Krasner: A Catalogue Raisonn‚, New York, 1995, pp. 109-110, no. 225 (illustrated in color). EXHIBITION New York, Bertha Schaefer Gallery, The Modern House Comes Alive 1948-1949, September-October 1948. NOTES The present work is from a series of paintings that Krasner referred to as Little Images . Modestly-sized, each consists of all-over fields of exquisite detail and nuances of color that bear the influence of Mark Tobey's "white writing" style and the innovative working methods of her husband, Jackson Pollock. To Krasner's horror, Bertha Schaefer, a gallery owner who began her career as an interior designer, put the painting behind glass and converted it into a table. The artist was additionally chagrined by the extensive publicity it garnered in its unintended role as a functional object. It remained in this state until 1980, when it was rescued from its fate as a horizontal support and returned to its status as an seminal Abstract Expressionist Krasner painting from the heroic years of the movement.