Lee Krasner: A Biography - Softcover

Levin, Gail

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061845272 ISBN 13: 9780061845277

Publisher: William Morrow & Company, 2012

Synopsis

Lee Krasner is best known as the artist-wife of Jackson Pollock, the renowned abstract expressionist painter. Yet in this riveting biography, the first full-length account of her colorful life, Krasner emerges as a significant artist who deserves her place in the twentieth century's cultural lexicon. In this captivating book, art historian Gail Levin probes Krasner's relationship with Pollock, examining how this strong woman struggled to meet the challenges of their poverty, as well as her husband's alcoholism and extramarital affair, all the while encouraging his art. Drawing on new sources and numerous personal interviews?including with Krasner herself?Levin has written a dynamic and moving portrait of a brilliant woman, a most welcome work that recovers Krasner's voice and allows us to understand how her life intersected with and informed her art.

About this title

Product Description:

Perhaps best known as the long-suffering wife of Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner is now, finally, being recognized as one of the 20th century's modernist masters. In Lee Krasner, author Gail Levin gives us an engrossing biography of the painter--so memorably portrayed in the movie Pollack by actor Marcia Gay Harden, who won an Academy Award for her performance--a firebrand and trailblazer for women's rights as well as an exceptional artist who led a truly fascinating life.

Review:

"Thorough.... A biography worth celebrating."--East Hampton Star

"Rigorous research, deep knowledge of art and cultural history, penetrating analysis and a flair for storytelling bring to life a fully formed Lee Krasner. Those who never knew her will wish they had, and those who did will be amazed."--Helen A. Harrison, Director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center

"Gail Levin's biography of Lee Krasner beautifully evokes a period in American art that laid the groundwork for the women artists of today. Lee... contributed wonderful work but also encouraged a whole new generation of artists. She grew into true generativity. Bless her and her biographer!"--Erica Jong

"Art historian Gail Levin's Lee Krasner is a quintuple whammy of a biography--the story of a major artist; a description of a notorious marriage; an education in 20th-century art; a gossipy immersion into Bohemian New York; and a settling of scores against those who practiced gender bias."--O, The Oprah Magazine

"Meticulous Lee Krasner celebrates Krasner's accomplishments as an artist, distinct from her famous husband. The book...gives voice to the indomitable but not invulnerable force of nature that was Lee Krasner . . . .Energetic, stubborn, seductive...Krasner comes memorably alive."--Dan's Papers (Hamptons)

"Levin deftly connects Krasner's biography to the social and political upheaval of the time. Her long experience in the art world gives insight into the landscape of 20th-century artists, art dealers and museums."--Kirkus Reviews

"Written with unassuming grace. This rigorously researched, straightforward account attempts to set the record straight about Krasner....the artist could not have found a more gifted biographer to retell her story and argue her case.... [a] fascinating and absorbing biography."--Jewish Daily Forward

"Ms. Levin's perceptive, judicious book reveals Krasner as a fine, important painter....This is an insightful, sharply drawn portrait of 20th-century America from the vantage point of a creative woman swept up in a realm of remarkable artistic productivity."--Wall Street Journal

"Art historian Levin befriended Krasner, starting when she was a grad student who interviewed the artist, and she gives Krasner a well-deserved full-fledged bio."--New York Post (Required Reading)

"Compelling. Art historian Gail Levin has drawn on her close association with Lee Krasner and extensive research to produce a biography that rings fair and true.--Los Angeles Times

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0061845272
• ISBN 13: 9780061845277
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 576