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Lee Krasner

Lee Krasner Quotes

Artist

Lee Krasner, an American artist born on October 27, 1908, and died on June 19, 1984. She is renowned for her unique abstract expressionist style and is considered one of the most important female artists of the 20th century. She was married to Jackson Pollock and her art career began in the 1930s.

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All Painting Ifs My Own Artist Men Paint People Thinking Abstract Break

Famous Lee Krasner Quotes

“Painting, for me, when it really 'happens,' is as miraculous as any natural phenomenon - as say, a lettuce leaf. By 'happens,' I mean the painting in which the inner aspect of man and his outer aspects interlock.”

Men Mean Happens Natural Painting Aspect Phenomenon Leafs Miraculous Lettuce Natural Phenomena

Book:Lee Krasner

Source: Lee Krasner

“One could go on for ever as to whether the paint should be thick or thin, whether to paint the woman or the square, hard-edge or soft, but after a while such questions become a bore. They are merely problems in aesthetics, having only to do with the outer man.”

Men Should Hard Problem Goes On Paint Edges Squares Thick Bores Aesthetics

Book:Lee Krasner

Source: Lee Krasner

“I think my painting is so autobiographical if anyone can take the trouble to read it.”

Ifs Thinking Trouble Painting

Book:Lee Krasner

Source: Lee Krasner

“I went into my own black-out period which lasted two or three years where the canvases would simply build up until they'd get like stone and it was always just a gray mess. The image wouldn't emerge, but I worked pretty regularly. I was fighting to find I knew not what, but I could no longer stay with what I had.”

Years Two Fighting Three Black My Own Periods Stones Mess Gray Three Years

Author:Lee Krasner

“I think every once in a while I feel the need to break my medium... if I have been doing a very large painting I like to drop into something in small scale. It is a challenge to go into this size. It is just to hold my own interest, and then each media has its own conditions.”

Ifs Thinking Needs Feels Has Beens Interest Challenges My Own Break Conditions Media Painting Size Scales Mediums

Author:Lee Krasner

“The key is what is within the artist. The artist can only paint what she or he is about.”

Artist Keys Paint

Author:Lee Krasner

“I am never free of the past. I have made it crystal clear that I believe the past is part of the present which becomes part of the future.”

Believe Made Past I Believe Clear Made It Crystals

Author:Lee Krasner

“My own image of my work is that I no sooner settle into something than a break occurs. These breaks are always painful and depressing but despite them I see that there's a consistency that holds out, but is hard to define.”

Hard My Own Break Depression Painful Despite Settling Depressing Consistency

Book:Lee Krasner

Source: Lee Krasner

“All my work keeps going like a pendulum; it seems to swing back to something I was involved with earlier, or it moves between horizontality and verticality, circularlity, or a composite of them. For me, I suppose, that change is the only constant.”

Seems Moving Involved Constant Keep Going Conformity Swings Non Conformity Pendulums Composites

Book:Lee Krasner

Source: Lee Krasner

“I never violate an inner rhythm. I loathe to force anything. I don't know if the inner rhythm is Eastern or Western. I know it is essential for me. I listen to it and I stay with it. I have always been this way. I have regards for the inner voice.”

Ifs Knows Way Force Voice Essentials Regard Western Intuition Rhythm Eastern Inner Voice Loathe

Book:Lee Krasner

Source: Lee Krasner

“I like a canvas to breathe and be alive. Be alive is the point. And, as the limitations are something called pigment and canvas, let's see if I can do it.”

Ifs I Can Can Do Alive Breathe Limitation Canvas I Can Do It Pigment

Author:Lee Krasner

“I knew de Kooning and I went to his studio so I knew about de Kooning's work. But only a little handful knew about it, you know. Maybe there were ten people that knew about it.”

People Knows Littles Ten Studios Handful

Author:Lee Krasner

“As I say, I as an abstract artist was active politically.”

Artist Active Abstract

Author:Lee Krasner

“At that point it certainly would be called abstract. That is to say, you had a model and there'd be one or two or three people there drawing the model but otherwise you had abstractions all around the room, even though the model was in front of you.”

People Two Would Be Three Rooms Fronts Models Drawing Abstract Abstraction

Author:Lee Krasner

“We get used to a certain kind of colour of form or format, and it's acceptable. And to puncture that is sticking your neck out a bit. And then pretty soon, that's very acceptable.”

Kind Form Used Certain Bits Colour Necks Acceptable Format Puncture

Author:Lee Krasner

“People were very affected by the war. But it didn't mean you stopped painting unless you were called into the Army; then you just couldn't paint. But otherwise one continued.”

People Mean War Painting Army Paint Affected Mean People

Author:Lee Krasner

“I need to be alone for certain periods of time or I violate my own rhythm.”

Needs Certain Time My Own Periods Painter Rhythm Introvert Violation Being Alone

Author:Lee Krasner

“I think, if one is a painter, all you experience does come out when you’re painting.”

Ifs Thinking Doe Painting Painter

Author:Lee Krasner

“Painting... in which the inner and the outer man are inseparable, transcends technique, transcends subject and moves into the realm of the inevitable.”

Men Moving Subjects Painting Technique Inevitable Realms Inseparable

Author:Lee Krasner

“I have never been able to understand the artist whose image never changes.”

Able Artist Never Change

Book:Lee Krasner

Source: Lee Krasner

“In the late 30s the name Pollock was totally unknown and unheard of.”

Names Late Unheard Pollock

Author:Lee Krasner

About the Author

Born: October 27, 1908
Died: June 19, 1984
Known for: Artist
Quotes: 21

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Painting Ifs My Own Artist Men Paint People Thinking Abstract Break

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