Metropolitan Museum Reevaluates Krasner And Pollock Partnership

(MENAFN- USA Art News) The exhibition“Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art brings together over 120 works by Lee Krasner ( 1908–84 ) and Jackson Pollock ( 1912–56 ). This marks a rare occasion to view a comprehensive collection from the celebrated artistic couple, challenging the long-standing focus predominantly on Pollock.

Pollock, who joined the $100 million club at an auction in May, has been the subject of extensive attention, including the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for Jackson Pollock: An American Saga by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White. This 934-page book later inspired the 2000 Hollywood film Pollock, in which Marcia Gay Harden earned Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Krasner. Historically, Krasner was often seen as a secondary figure, a narrative Barbara Rose sought to subvert with her 1981 exhibition“Krasner/Pollock: A Working Relationship,” which proposed their marriage was a partnership of artistic equals. However, Rose's effort did not fully extract Krasner from Pollock's shadow.

“Past Continuous” adopts a more daring, nuanced, and expansive approach by treating the artists as equals, notably giving more attention to Krasner, who outlived Pollock by 28 years. The exhibition opens with footage offering a panoramic view of their unheated, two-story, shingled house and studio on Long Island, interspersed with historic stills of Pollock, Krasner, their dog Gyp, and their pet crow, Caw Caw. They resided in this house for nearly 11 years until Pollock's death in a drunk driving accident, which also killed his passenger, Edith Metzger, and injured his girlfriend, Ruth Kligman. At the time of the accident, Krasner was in Europe, seeking distance from Pollock's struggles with drinking and infidelity.

It was within this Long Island home, away from New York and his frequented Cedar Bar, that Pollock created his inaugural drip paintings. He worked by unrolling unprimed canvas onto the studio floor, applying enamel and house paints horizontally with sticks and brushes without direct contact. This technique was influenced by Janet Sobel ( 1893–1968 ), a self-taught, Ukrainian-born artist. Pollock saw her painting Milky Way ( 1945 ) at Peggy Guggenheim's Art of This Century gallery in 1946, directly inspiring his first drip painting, Galaxy, in 1947. Just two years later, a LIFE magazine headline,“Jackson Pollock: Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?”, transformed him from a lesser-known abstract painter into an instant celebrity. The article featured four photographs of Pollock, depicting him as a brooding, hyper-masculine figure with a cigarette and paint-splattered jeans, omitting any mention of Krasner and presenting him as a solitary male genius. The 2026 exhibition“Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous” photo is by Anna-Marie Kellen, courtesy The Met.

The Met's exhibition aims to subvert this myth, ambitiously resetting the history of Abstract Expressionism by highlighting the complexity of their artistic connection. The first gallery showcases Krasner's collage works from the mid- 1950s, a period when Pollock faced an artistic impasse and struggled with loss of control. This narrative contrasts previous accounts that emphasized Pollock's decline without fully acknowledging Krasner's simultaneous artistic triumph. The show demonstrates that by the mid- 1950s, Krasner had achieved equality with Pollock and deserved independent recognition. In Bald Eagle ( 1955 ), Krasner utilized discarded scraps of dark brown linen and unprimed canvas from both her and Pollock's studios. A white shape in the painting's center, resembling a bird's profile, reveals Pollock's distinctive dripped black line. By integrating their rejected materials, Krasner symbolically underwent a rebirth, akin to a phoenix emerging from destruction, a fitting metaphor for her entire artistic journey and life.

Plagued by self-doubt and creative blocks, Krasner consistently sought new artistic paths, all while navigating the immense presence of Pollock. Before their meeting, she inscribed lines from Arthur Rimbaud's poem A Season in Hell on her studio wall:“To whom shall I hire myself out? What beast must I adore? What holy image is attacked? What hearts shall I break? What lie must I maintain? In what blood tread?” Her restless spirit and resilience underscore the challenges she faced in preserving her artistic integrity.

After establishing Krasner's independent artistic strength, the curators adopt a more biographical approach, displaying their early works from before they met in the same gallery. This includes their self-portraits: Krasner's, rendered in graphite and crayon (circa 1929–30 ), and Pollock's, a moody impasto in muddy brown tones (circa 1930–33 ). The exhibition also features selections from“American and French Painting” ( 1942 ), a group show curated by Russian émigré artist and theoretician John Graham, where both artists exhibited alongside figures such as Stuart Davis, Willem de Kooning, Picasso, and Henri Matisse. After seeing the show, Krasner sought out Pollock, leading to their subsequent history.

High points of the exhibition range from Pollock's expansive masterpiece, Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), to a reconstruction of Krasner's significant 1955 Stable Gallery exhibition. This show prompted critic Clement Greenberg to declare her“a major addition to the American art scene of the era.” Greenberg later asserted that Pollock, with his drip paintings, had moved beyond Cubism and created the first great American paintings. While Greenberg noted Krasner's innovative use of collage, transforming it into new American territory, his praise for her was less effusive than for her husband. This hierarchical assessment, a“glass ceiling” as described, impacted Krasner's career.

Utilizing pieces that she and Pollock destroyed, abandoned, or left unfinished, Krasner developed a distinct body of work. In Blue Level and Desert Moon (both 1955 ), Krasner created a vertical world of solid blue and red areas, with raw elements extending beyond the painting's edges, symbolizing rebirth and destruction. The exhibition's later rooms are largely dominated by Krasner's work as she explored new artistic territories, while Pollock produced a limited number of unique paintings during this period, such as Portrait and a Dream and The Deep (both 1953 ).

In The Seasons ( 1957 ), a work nearly 17 feet long, Krasner boldly returned to themes of rebirth one year after Pollock's death, featuring abundant forms resembling genitalia. Her audacity continued with Past Continuous ( 1976 ), her final monumental collage, composed of charcoal drawings made during her studies with Hans Hofmann. The 20 years between these works saw the creation of significant pieces from every decade, reflecting Krasner's ceaseless innovation. Examples include Kufic ( 1965 ), a spare, contemplative painting whose title refers to the oldest style of Arabic calligraphy, highlighting Krasner's enduring interest in writing and linear marks. Rising Green ( 1971 ) is another notable work from her distinguished career. The exhibition concludes with Future Indicative ( 1977 ), a collage of Krasner's figure drawings. A self-critical artist who was never fully content with her achievements, Krasner produced numerous masterpieces in both paint and collage, works that stand independently and differ from those of her contemporaries, finally garnering recognition for her profound contributions to American art.

We previously reported:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's“Krasner and Pollock” exhibition features over $3 billion in art but did not secure US government indemnity.

Source: ARTnews

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