Lee
KRASNER
United States of America
1908
–
1984
Untitled
(1970)
planographic
lithograph
on paper
108/175
edition of 175
inscribed, l.l.c., pencil "108/175", signed, l.r.c, in pencil "Lee Krasner"
53.0 (h)
x 65.8 (w)
cm
Purchased 1984
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
NGA 1984.2976
- with Sylvan Cole Gallery, New York;
- from whom bough by the Australian National Gallery, December 1984
- The Spontaneous Gesture
- National Gallery of Australia 06 Jun 1987 – 13 Sep 1987
- Abstract Expressionism: the National Gallery of Australia celebrates the centenaries of Jackson Pollock and Morris Louis
- 14 Jul 2012 – 24 Feb 2013
Krasner was one of twelve contributors to a project to raise money for candidates in the 1970 American Congressional election. Each of the 40 women and men were committed to ending the war in Vietnam. As critic the Harold Rosenberg wrote in the preface for the portfolio, the funds generated ‘placed megaphones in the hands of Peace candidates.’ Motherwell and Robert Rauschenberg were two of the other artists whose work is included in this portfolio, published by Mourlot Graphics.
Working with tusche directly onto the stone, Krasner’s lithograph shows the immediacy of her gesture and mark making. It is closely related to a large group of drawings produced in 1969 where she experimented with Pollock-like drips, blobs and lines, relishing the effect of gouache on the porous, hand-made paper.[1] She further explored these ideas in three lithographs, commissioned in the same year by Marlborough Graphics. Later Krasner recycled some of her prints into collages. She said ‘I go back on myself, into my own work, destroy it in some way and come up with a new thing …it’s a form of clarification.’[2]
Lucina Ward
[1] These are the series Seeds, Earths, Waters and Hieroglyphs for which she often worked on dampened paper; see Ellen Landau, Lee Krasner: A catalogue raisonné, New York: Harry N. Abrams 1995, cats. 452–526, pp. 240–59
[2] 1979 interview with Barbara Novak, reprinted in Lee Krasner: Recent work, New York: Pace Gallery 1981, p. ?
Discussion of the work
Krasner was one of twelve contributors to a project to raise money for candidates in the 1970 American Congressional election. Each of the 40 women and men were committed to ending the war in Vietnam. As critic the Harold Rosenberg wrote in the preface for the portfolio, the funds generated ‘placed megaphones in the hands of Peace candidates.’ Motherwell and Robert Rauschenberg were two of the other artists whose work is included in this portfolio, published by Mourlot Graphics.
Working with tusche directly onto the stone, Krasner’s lithograph shows the immediacy of her gesture and mark making. It is closely related to a large group of drawings produced in 1969 where she experimented with Pollock-like drips, blobs and lines, relishing the effect of gouache on the porous, hand-made paper.[1] She further explored these ideas in three lithographs, commissioned in the same year by Marlborough Graphics. Later Krasner recycled some of her prints into collages. She said ‘I go back on myself, into my own work, destroy it in some way and come up with a new thing …it’s a form of clarification.’[2]
Lucina Ward
[1] These are the series Seeds, Earths, Waters and Hieroglyphs for which she often worked on dampened paper; see Ellen Landau, Lee Krasner: A catalogue raisonné, New York: Harry N. Abrams 1995, cats. 452–526, pp. 240–59
[2] 1979 interview with Barbara Novak, reprinted in Lee Krasner: Recent work, New York: Pace Gallery 1981, p. ?
