Lee Krasner (American, 1908–1984) was a major figure in the American Abstract Expressionist movement and the wife of Jackson Pollock. Working in oil on canvas, ink on paper, and mixed-media collage, Krasner produced works characterized by a sensuous painterly style, her large-scales collages often formed from the artist’s own cut-up paintings and drawings. Krasner exhibited with the American Abstract Artists group, through which she met Pollock; the two became vital critics and supporters of one another, and Pollock’s influence on Krasner helped free her from formalist strictures. “Painting…in which the inner and the outer man are inseparable, transcends technique, transcends subject and moves into the realm of the inevitable,” she said. Krasner studied under Hans Hofmann, and considered Henri Matisse and Piet Mondrian to be lifelong influences on her practice.
