Met Museum Gives Artist Lee Krasner Her Overdue Spotlight

When Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock met at a 1942 New York art show, she was already the more established Abstract Expressionist painter. But history had other plans for how the world would remember them.

The two artists married in 1945 and spent the next decade creating revolutionary art side by side. Yet while Life magazine asked in 1949 if Pollock was America's greatest living painter, Krasner became known simply as "Mrs. Jackson Pollock."

That changes this year when the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens "Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous." The exhibition brings together more than 120 artworks and objects, presenting both artists on equal footing for the first time in a major New York show in over 20 years.

"These artists are equals, partners in life, giants in the history of art and revolutionaries who defined what abstraction could be," says David Breslin, the Met's curator in charge of modern and contemporary art. He describes them as "two planets circling each other."

Born in Brooklyn in 1908, Krasner was inspired by New York's vibrant art scene. When the Museum of Modern Art opened in 1929, she said "it was like a bomb that exploded," though nothing hit her as hard until she saw Pollock's work.

The exhibition follows their artistic journeys through 12 chapters spanning from the 1930s through their final years. Visitors will see Krasner's Little Images series from the 1940s, small paintings with abstract symbols now considered among her most significant contributions to the movement.

The couple moved to Long Island in 1945, where they worked in close proximity. "They're seeing each other's work every day," says artist Amy Sillman, who contributed to the exhibition catalog. "They're egging each other on."

After Pollock died in a 1956 car crash at age 44, Krasner moved into his large barn studio. Her first painting from that period was The Seasons, a stunning 17-foot canvas bursting with swirling colors.

Why This Inspires

Krasner spent nearly three decades after Pollock's death creating some of her most transformative work while also preserving his legacy. Her first solo exhibition didn't open until 1975 in London, when she was 67 years old.

When artist Amy Sillman saw Krasner's 1950s collages at a 2019 London exhibition, her "jaw dropped." She realized what many are only now discovering: "She was a really great painter."

This exhibition proves that recognition, even when delayed, can still arrive.