Seeing Krasner and Pollock Together
Lia Strasser on what she got wrong about the AbEx couple, art world homages to Yayoi Kusama, and another museum heist?!
As an editor, occasionally a pitch lands in your inbox that makes your heart rate quicken. That’s what I felt when artist and writer Lia Strasser emailed me a few weeks ago, attaching a very personal and moving essay about her relationship to the story of Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock. You may be familiar with the critique that Krasner’s oeuvre has been overshadowed by that of her husband — the alpha male, the household name, the frankly abusive spouse. When Strasser first saw a post announcing The Met’s upcoming exhibition dedicated to both artists, she winced. “Give her a solo show!”
Then, Strasser retraced her steps — from the Abstract Expressionist couple’s home in East Hampton to the formative moments that shaped her own artistic identity — and discovered a different reading, one that centers rather than diminishes Krasner’s agency.
Also today, the art world pays homage to Yayoi Kusama, who died last week at the age of 97; a Bruges exhibition that claims to de-center Europe fails to live up to its premise; and thieves make off with a diamond necklace from a museum in Vienna.
—Valentina Di Liscia, senior editor
What I Got Wrong About Krasner and Pollock
Earlier this year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced its forthcoming exhibition Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous on Instagram, alongside a photograph of the artists by Hans Namuth. Seething, I looked to the comments for affirmation. I didn’t have to scroll for long.
Months earlier, I had visited the Pollock-Krasner House in Springs, East Hampton, knowing far more about Jackson Pollock than I did Lee Krasner. I am a painter myself, and I had come to Springs in the wreck of yet another failed relationship … with a painter. I thought I already knew Krasner’s story. I thought her story was partly my own. | Lia Strasser
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News
- Following this week’s news of Yayoi Kusama's passing, artists, galleries, museums, and fashion houses around the world take to social media to reflect on the seismic loss.
- Thieves make off with a platinum and diamond necklace from the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna.
- Demolitions at the Rike Park Music Theatre and Exhibition Hall in Tbilisi, Georgia prompt outcry from local community members and the architects.
From Our Critics
The Belgian Exhibition That Strives to “Decenter” the West
With two contradictory briefs — to both decenter Europe and show Bruges’s centrality in international networks — an exhibition on the Belgian city is already off to a bumpy start. | Natasha Seaman
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From the Archive
The Anti-Apartheid Photographer Who Was Stranded in America
Ernest Cole’s life story is an anti-colonialism epic, Cold War thriller, and a tragedy. | John Edwin Mason
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