Lee Krasner 1908-1984
The Seasons, 1957
oil on canvas
92 7/8 x 203 3/4 inches
235.9 x 517.5 cm
235.9 x 517.5 cm
Catalogue Raisonné Remarks: By the time she painted The Seasons, Krasner had moved into Pollock's barn studio. It is the largest work she had ever attempted: close to 17 feet...
Catalogue Raisonné Remarks:
By the time she painted The Seasons, Krasner had moved into Pollock's barn studio. It is the largest work she had ever attempted: close to 17 feet wide and exceeding 7 feet high. With more sweeping movements of the body, not just the arm and wrist, she developed an exuberantly expressionistic composition dominated by rhythmically interactive organic forms even more sexually suggestive than those in smaller contemporaneous canvases like Sun Woman I (CR 312). As in CR 314, allusions to specific anatomical parts (the heart, the buttocks, the penis, eyes, mouths, labia) are cleverly rhymed with other natural forms (leaves, fruit, etc.). Natural processes of growth and change are suggested through her gestural and painterly technique, through emphasis on the spherical and curvilinear, and through the use of fresh greens and bright pinks loosely tied together by cream and black. Some reviewers pointed out how, in these works, Krasner used Matisse and biomorphism as antidotes to her personal pain. In 1981, John Russell of the NYT declared The Seasons "one of the most remarkable American paintings of its date."
By the time she painted The Seasons, Krasner had moved into Pollock's barn studio. It is the largest work she had ever attempted: close to 17 feet wide and exceeding 7 feet high. With more sweeping movements of the body, not just the arm and wrist, she developed an exuberantly expressionistic composition dominated by rhythmically interactive organic forms even more sexually suggestive than those in smaller contemporaneous canvases like Sun Woman I (CR 312). As in CR 314, allusions to specific anatomical parts (the heart, the buttocks, the penis, eyes, mouths, labia) are cleverly rhymed with other natural forms (leaves, fruit, etc.). Natural processes of growth and change are suggested through her gestural and painterly technique, through emphasis on the spherical and curvilinear, and through the use of fresh greens and bright pinks loosely tied together by cream and black. Some reviewers pointed out how, in these works, Krasner used Matisse and biomorphism as antidotes to her personal pain. In 1981, John Russell of the NYT declared The Seasons "one of the most remarkable American paintings of its date."