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• 1 media/Lee Krasner, Sun Woman I.jpg media/Lee Krasner Prophecy.jpg 2020-10-14T22:02:10+00:00 Psychoanalysis of Lee Krasner's Prophecy 25 By Ella Allison plain 2020-12-07T06:56:08+00:00

  Lee Krasner was not just another abstract expressionist of the twentieth century. In the early 1940’s, Krasner was responsible for the movement that recast New York City as the new nucleus of the art world, from Paris. Lee Krasner painted Prophecy in 1956. Daughter of Russian-Jewish parents, Lee Krasner was born as Lena Krasner on October 27th, 1908 in Brooklyn, New York, weeks after her parents' arrival into the United States. The legacy of Lee Krasner has often been eclipsed by her famed late-husband Jackson Pollock in history books and art museums. In spite of Krasner’s work being overshadowed, she is one of the few women artists to receive a full retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Throughout her career, Krasner proved to be an exceptional artist, as she worked with a wide range of different styles and media. In the opinion of Sigmund Freud, artists seek resolution to developmental conflicts through the creation of art, which serves as safe space. Freudian analysis speculates that the pleasure principle incentivises artists to obtain pleasure through a creative outlet in order to satisfy psychological and biological needs. By means of psychoanalytic approach, scholars have the ability to consider how the choices Krasner made throughout her life and in her art were likely influenced by drives, such as her upbringing, identity as a woman, romantic relationships, and creation of Prophecy. 
  

  Krasner was born only weeks after her mother immigrated from central Ukraine to New York. Like many other Russian-Jew families, Krasner’s family fled from Eastern Europe during a period of anti-semitism towards Jewish people grew widespread in the early twentieth century. As a first-generation immigrant in an Orthodox Jewish household in the United States, Krasner may have experienced assimilation anxiety. Even at “mid century and after, they were susceptible to racializing prohibitions and stereotypes." The cultural anxieties and struggles of Krasner’s upbringing as a young Jewish immigrant are reflected in the inconsistency of her earlier works and artistic identity. In her early years, she refined her artistic style time and again, just as she continually rewrote her name from “Lena” to “Lenore” to the gender ambiguous “Lee,” and her last name “Krassner” cut to “Krasner.” Some may speculate that Krasner’s identity as a Jewish woman has affected how critics interpreted and perceived her art and its meanings. The Surrealist characteristics in her series Little Images were emphasized by the symbols art historians speculate were “Hebrew inscriptions familiar from her childhood” as Krasner attempted to break away from the geometric forms of Cubist art. The psychoanalytic theories relating to French author Xavière Gauthier related the “linear, grammatical linguistic system that orders the symbolic, the superego, the law” to a woman’s psyche, based off how she writes. 

  “Few women attempted to align themselves with Abstract Expressionism,” asserts Whitney Chadwick, who makes the assessment that Krasner struggled in her career as a artist during the 1940’s and 1950’s, a time which “points up the precarious place of the feminine within the rhetoric and institutions of Abstract Expressionism.” Under the instruction of critically acclaimed artist Hans Hoffman, Krasner was told “this painting is so good, you’d never know it was done by a woman.” Women artists received recognition in mainstream publications, such as Time and Cosmopolitan, where their womanhood was exemplified and placed at the forefront of the articles. These articles referred to Lee Krasner and her industry colleagues as obscure “lady artists,” using anxiety-inducing language in an attempt to forewarn readers that the art world was “‘under siege,’ threatened by a ‘feminine invasion.’” These messages embodied the widespread attitudes of post-war America, which characterized these independent women as anomalies, not necessarily role models.  In order to distinguish herself as an independent artist, Kransner “had to separate herself from the construction of masculine subjectivity embedded in Abstract Expressionism” and her identity tied to relationships, such as being wife to the poster boy of the movement, Jackson Pollock. As a result, Krasner turned down numerous opportunities to showcase her work in exhibitions that only featured women artists; she regarded these invitations as insulting to her art. Art historian Ann Gibson makes the assertion that “most [women] abstractionists aimed to produce painting that was neither recognizably gendered, nor overtly figurative, nor political.” As an educated woman, Krasner was respected for her artistic apprehension, but “intelligence, though, was not enough to reach the celebrity tier of American painting, and it even could be a hindrance if you were a woman in American art’s most macho era.” The machismo of the paint slinging and drinking of the male contemporaries in the Abstract Expressionism movement marginalized the women responsible for the development of abstraction in art. Krasner and many other women artists in the movement were restricted from the boys-only organization on Eighth Street and confined to small canvases on tabletops, whereas the male artists in “The Club” were unenclosed in their spaces and experienced ample opportunities in the advancement of their artistic career.

  Krasner’s identity as a woman and an artist greatly influenced her art. Freudian theory argues that human behavior, our urges, and feelings that inform the choices we make derive from struggles on an unconscious level that we do not perceive. “As she struggled to lay claim to the all-over images produced through automism, Krasner began to approach painting as a meditative exercise” and used it as an outlet for her psychological development. Krasner did not concern herself with the final product that came out of her practice, but more so the pleasure that came with the process of the work. There was no objective in the exercises, outside of “seeking to obliteratie figurative references and hierarchical composition” without reference to the outside world, which she derived pleasure in making the work.  Krasner likely did not paint with the intention of showcasing these works, which is evident in how she “worked and re-worked her canvases, scraping them down until nothing remained but granular gray slabs two to three inches thick, most of which she eventually destroyed.” Through a psychoanalytic lens, scholars may connect Krasner’s artistic outlet as a space for her unconscious to surface. Krasner’s subconscious generated personal marks through thick slabs of unmixed paint.This speculation explains why she would destroy her canvases once she could no longer paint on them. The burden of being in the shadow of and societal expectations of Krasner caring for her more-famous husband is evident in the works, as Krasner struggled to prove herself as an Abstract Expressionist in a time when women were encouraged to move to the suburbs and pride themselves on the caring of their household. The bright colors roiled with thick white oil paint in Krasner’s 1947 piece Noon provides viewers with a window into Lee Krasner’s mind as a woman in post-war United States. The symbolism in her piece serves as the representation in the desire and wishes to manifest as a honored artist, regardless of her gender. The emergence of postmodernism in art arrived at the close of World War II. Art historian Lisa Saltzman observes “the demographic shifts that took place throughout America during and after the war saw their reproduction in the aesthetic microcosm of New York School painting, where women emerged alongside men as principal practitioners.” This shift was not celebrated by all, regardless of the positive contributions made by women, because emerging social norms regarded women’s self-sufficiency as ‘unnatural’ and a threat to men. The United States economy threatened the occupational status of women in order to provide jobs to returning soldiers, who “wanted women out of the professions and back in their homes.” Art collectors were reluctant to take their chances on women painters, who assumed women artists “might decide to turn the studio into a nursery” without warning. 

  The romantic attachment between Krasner and Pollock following their meeting led to their arduous marriage plagued by infidelity and alcoholism, in addition to a not-so-mutually beneficial professional relationship. The rocky relationship between Krasner and painter Igor Pantuhoff foreshadowed her marriage to Pollock. At the time of their first meeting, Lee Krasner was a more accomplished and well-known artist than her husband in the New York City art circuit. Kaitlin Halloran makes the assertion that Krasner “was just as qualified as her contemporaries to be considered a talented and well-educated painter, but after marrying Pollock in 1945, she was regarded predominantly as his wife and not much more.” As Pollock’s partner, Lee provided the necessary stability and structure as a nurturer, which her husband desperately needed and never previously experienced from his dysfunctional family. Krasner was likely aware of his uniquely intense sensitivities that stemmed from undiagnosed mental illness, addiction, and childhood trauma. A great portion of Pollock’s perturbation was likely rooted in his relationship with his mother, psychoanalysts speculate. Therefore, Krasner fulfilled his need for a mother-figure and “fought against the typical ‘wife’ role” in order to help him advance in his career and prioritized his advancement over her own. In late 1945, Krasner facilitated a move from New York City to the South Fork of Long Island for a fresh start and means to help her husband maintain sobriety. Pollock thrived in this environment, he “was back in America. He could have dogs again, as he used to when he was young; he even adopted a crow,” Evelyn Tonyton notes, “It was Krasner, born and bred in a Jewish immigrant community in Brooklyn and then part of the left-wing, avant-garde art scene of Greenwich Village for many years, who was really out of place.”

  Jackson Pollock became known as the leading artist of Abstract Expressionism and perhaps the first artist to attain celebrity status in the United States, thanks to the tireless early support of his wife, Krasner and financial contributions by patron Peggy Guggenheim. Lee Krasner lived in the shadow of her husband’s contemporary fame. As an artist, Krasner was forced to limit the scale of her works to allow for her husband’s "artistic genius" to thrive in the barn. Her output of art continuously suffered, while she continued to care for her dysfunctional husband. This is evident in how Krasner cannibalized the rejected works of her paintings and Pollock’s canvases to create a series of collages in 1953. Art historians speculate that “by incorporating Pollock's work, Krasner precipitated for herself an experience of liminality, in which one can escape from one's present role, crossing boundaries into another.” Following her collage expedition, Krasner sought to once again change her artistic style in 1955. 
  

  After several years of maintaining sobriety and reaching what art historians would regard as Pollock’s “Golden Age,” Pollock relapsed in 1950 and spiraled into self-destruction. Krasner reached her emotional threshold after several years of her husband's violent alcohol-fueled marathon binges and numerous problematic affairs with women he did not even attempt to hide. Finding herself at a crossroads, Krasner sought enrichment for her personal life, as well as her identity as an artist. Therefore, she decided to visit friends in Europe for inspiration and to separate herself from the ruination of her estranged husband. In spite of leaving to go to Europe alone, “she’d hoped Pollock might accompany her. When she arrived at the dock she was so troubled at the thought that she was deserting him,” author of Jackson Pollock’s biography Evelyn Toynton asserts, she was “so frightened of what might happen when she did, that she almost changed her mind about going, but finally, after phoning him, she boarded the ship.” Unfortunately, Krasner’s visit was cut short when news of Pollock’s involvement in a fatal single-automobile crash reached her in August 1956. Upon her return home, she had learned that Pollock had two passengers in his Oldsmobile at the time of his death: Edith Metzger, who had died and Pollock’s mistress artist Ruth Kligman, who had survived. Krasner was left with the emotional aftermath of her husbands automobile crash, which freed her from the obligations as a wife and gave her the opportunity to focus on herself. 
   

  Through this period of grief and eventual relief, Krasner was able to further explore the concept of vulnerability through her art. At this time, she began to use the barn studio that was once designated for only Pollock and made it her own space. Subsequently, her work grew in size and a newfound sense of rawness transpired in her paintings. All completed in 1956, Krasner created the works Birth, Embrace, and Three in Two in the same year as her work Prophecy. These works were apart of her Earth Green Series, which she had started previous to her late husband’s death. Krasner had left Prophecy on her easel in late July, before she left New York for France in August, alone. Krasner’s feelings of pain, guilt, and anger are embodied within the painting, as her marriage was in ruins at the time of Prophecy’s conception. Krasner confessed that the painting disturbed her, but her husband attempted to be supportive and encouraged her to continue. The surreal assortment of tangled limbs, smudged pubic hair, and protruding genitals postulates that the bodies are coming out of the canvas, as they struggle to fit within the confines. Viewers of the work cannot help but notice the four hands located on the lowest part of the painting. The two sets of hands in the middle are forcefully squeezed by the one another, whereas the hands on the opposite sides of the canvas appear to be pulling away from the other pair. Scholars using a psychoanalytical approach may speculate these hands represent Freud’s three components of the human psyche: the Id, Ego, and Superego. The scarlet covered hand on the left represents the Id, which is rooted in the instinctual, biological “urges'' of the human psyche. The pale pink hand of the right of the canvas symbolizes the SuperEgo, which is responsible for controlling the impulses of the Id by enforcing the morals and values of society upon it. The SuperEgo crushes the hand belonging to the Id with all its strength, so much so that the Id’s hands are blood-red in color. The SuperEgo reminds the Id of the love Krasner has for Pollock and how she needs to remain faithful to him, because that is what wives were expected to do in post-war America. In the context of Lee Krasner’s life, the SuperEgo is Kranser’s conscience, that is guilted by her failed marriage with her alcoholic husband. Caught within the fight between the Id and Superego is a figure, which represents the Ego. The Ego attempts to serve as a mediator in the between the two forces, while experiencing intense emotions of sorrow and grief that are reflected in the flesh toned, human-like figure. In an attempt to arbitrate between external forces advocating for Krasner to continue to care for her husband struggling with mental illness, in spite of his infidelity, to fulfill her duties expected from her as a wife and the internal desire to live life on her own terms has caused the human-like figure in the middle to implode within striking shades of yellow. The symbolism behind the color yellow is bidirectional in psychoanalytic theory. The utilization of the color yellow in Prophecy is reminiscent of the 1892 story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins. Victorian women suffering from grief and hysteria were suggested to rest in order to treat their ailments, however, this treatment often made it more difficult for women to overcome grief as their inactivity consumes them with further anguish. Instead of repressing the trauma associated with her marriage, Krasner is overwhelmed by constant reminders. Bright yellow colors have the ability to embody optimism and confidence, however, prolonged exposure to mustard and gold yellows can lead to a rise in anxiety and fear. Krasner is engulfed within these colors, as she recognizes that even in her husband’s death, she will still be known as the wife of Pollock in everything she does. Prophecy is psychological disturbing and harrowing, as her resumption in the work following Pollock’s death reflects Krasner’s intense emotions of the guilt and grief she derived from her husband’s fatal car accident. 
  

  Louise Elliott Rago’s 1960 interview with Lee Krasner exemplifies Krasner’s best description of her relationship to her late husband, which she unhesitatingly says "Unfortunately, it was most fortunate to know Jackson Pollock." Some art historians and critics postulate that Krasner’s new style was the continuance of where her late husband had ‘left off.’ Conversely, art historians who separate Krasner from Pollock find that she found her ‘second-wind’ as a woman artist, as reflected in later work following the death of her husband. In the twentieth century, women artists faced great difficulties in their discipline and their public perception was skewed by their romantic involvement with other artists. The challenges and categorations Lee Krasner vehemently worked against provides historians with insight as to who she was as an individual and artist. Krasner knew that her works would be judged by preconceived notions of her as a woman and wife, but continued to produce soul-stirring works that prompted emotional reactions and passionately demonstrated her ingenuity as a woman artist, time and time again. The biographies of women artists have appeared only recently, as male artists were perpetually endemic and celebrated in the field. Lee Krasner took part in a movement amidst a time when men were celebrated as legends and the women that were part of it rarely honored, but continued to create impactful works aware of the certainty that they may end up in the unknown. Today, Lee Krasner is receiving a deserved resurgence in the recognition she deserves for her dedicated contributions to art.