Life and career
Origins and training
Krasner was born in Brooklyn to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. She studied at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design, later working on public art projects during the Depression.
Places, turning points and artistic change
At Springs, where she lived with her husband Jackson Pollock, small dense paintings developed alongside collage. After his death, a larger studio made much larger canvases possible. She repeatedly cut up and reused her own earlier work.
Beyond the studio
She was an arts activist and protected Pollock’s legacy, but also built an independent body of work. Reworking, rather than a single fixed signature style, defines much of her career.
Works across a career
Selected examples, not a complete catalogue. Read date ranges and attributions before inferring a career sequence.
Reading the selected works together
The small Little Image, cut-and-rebuilt Milkweed and broad Gaea reveal a career organised through repeated renewal.
- 01
1949
1949
Untitled (Little Image)
- Material / technique
- Oil on canvas
- Attribution / role
- See the museum attribution
- Collection / source
- Pollock–Krasner House
Dense small marks turn the entire surface into a field.
- 02
1955
1955
Milkweed
- Material / technique
- Oil and collage on canvas
- Attribution / role
- See the museum attribution
- Collection / source
- Pollock–Krasner House
Cut fragments are reorganised into a new composition.
- 03
1966
1966
Gaea
- Material / technique
- Oil on canvas
- Attribution / role
- Collection / source
- The Museum of Modern Art
Artist-wide context
She cut, revised and rebuilt paintings, exploring how marks and shapes could move across a surface.
Materials, marks and colour
Media and surface
Paint and discarded canvas fragments can become material for a new work.
Marks and structure
Small dense marks later expand into broad, sweeping forms.
Palette and light
Dark-and-light restrictions and vivid colours belong to different series, not one universal palette.