Lot 189 : LEE KRASNER

Lee Lenore Krasner - 1908-1984

Auction Location: United States of America - 2003
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Artist or Maker:

1908-1984

Title:

MAJUSCULE

Description:

SIGNED AND DATED (MAKER'S MARKS)
signed and dated 71; signed again and titled on the stretcher

Medium:

oil on canvas

Dimensions:

69 by 82 1/8 in. 175.2 by 208.6cm

Provenance:

PROPERTY OF FMC TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, Inc., New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Exhibited:

New York, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, Inc., Lee Krasner: Recent Paintings, April-May 1973, cat. no. 4, p. 13, illustrated in color

Published:

New York Magazine, April 30, 1973, Vol. 4, p. 13, illustrated in color
Cindy Nemser, "A Conversation with Lee Krasner," Arts Magazine, April 1973, p. 47, illustrated in color
Cindy Nemser, Art Talk: Conversations with 12 Women Artists, New York, 1975, p. 111, illustrated
Cindy Nemser, "The Indomitable Lee Krasner," The Feminist Art Journal, Spring, 1975, p. 9
Elsa Honig Fine, Women and Art, Montclair and London, 1978, fig. 9-20, p. 210, illustrated
Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein, American Women Artists, New York, 1982, p. 274
Exh. Cat., Houston, Museum of Fine Arts; New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Lee Krasner: A Retrospective, 1983, cat. no. 135, p. 138, illustrated in color
Mark Stevens, "The American Masters," Newsweek, January 2, 1984, p. 67
Stephen Polcari, "Lee Krasner and Abstract Expressionism," State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1988, p. 6
Stephen Polcari, Abstract Expressionism and the Modern Experience, Cambridge and New York, 1991, cat. no. 273, p. 337, illustrated
Ellen G. Landau, Lee Krasner: A Catalogue Raisonné, New York, 1995, cat. no. 539, p. 264, illustrated in color
Robert Hobbs, Lee Krasner, New York, 1999, no. 85, p. 175, illustrated in color

Notes:

As Ellen Landau pointed out in the catalogue raisonné on Lee Krasner, "In 1982 Krasner's secretary, Darby Cardonsky, explained the origin of this painting's title. 'The imagery of Majuscule,' she wrote to H.W. Goodwin, 'is derived from Miss Krasner's fascination with ancient markings and writings and the word 'majuscule' itself, refers to the first and large letters in manuscripts writing.' According to Landau, Majuscule indicates the new direction that Krasner was moving. Majuscule shows that she now favored a lyrical, classically balanced abstraction, rather than a loose, more expressionistic and painterly rendering. In Art Table, Cindy Nemser noted of Majuscule, and several other canvases painted in 1971:

"These paintings have a strong sense of totality. They are emblematic and can each be read as a complete gestalt rather than images of parts, and though there is less freedom in the brushstroke and the handling is more congealed, the forms are not closed in on themselves. They are expansive yet contained- again there is your characteristic merging of opposites. They are the work of a person with a strong sense of confidence and quiet authority. [Krasner's] rhythm has slowed down and has a measured, more majestic quality. Martha Graham comes to mind. These are very stately, slow-moving pictures." (op. cit.)