Lee Krasner (63 page)

1999-Hobbs Robert Hobbs,
Lee Krasner
(New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999).

1999-Martin Richard Martin,
Charles James
(New York: Universe Books, 1999).

2000-Matossian Nouritza Matossian,
Black Angel: The Life of Arshile Gorky
(Woodstock, N.Y.: The Overlook Press, 2000).

2000-Harrison Helen A. Harrison, ed.,
Such Desperate Joy Imagining Jackson Pollock
(New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2000).

2001-Abeles Anne L. Abeles,
James Brooks: From Dallas to the New York School
, doctoral dissertation, Graduate School of the City University of New York, 2001.

2002-Arnett LK quoted in William Arnett, Alvia Wardlaw, et al.,
The Quilts of Gee's Bend: Masterpieces from a Lost Place
(New York: Tinwood Books, 2002).

2002-Gill Anton Gill,
Art Lover: A Biography of Peggy Guggenheim
(New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002).

2002-Harrison See Helen Harrison and Constance Ayers Denne,
Hamptons Bohemia: Two Centuries of Artists and Writers on the Beach
(San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2002).

2002-Hemingway Andrew Hemingway,
Artists on the Left: American Artists and the Communist Movement, 1926–1956
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002).

2002-Rembert Virginia Pitts Rembert,
Mondrian in the USA
(Parkstone Press Ltd., 2002).

2003-Herrera Hayden Herrera,
Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work
(New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003).

2003-Siskind Amy B. Siskind,
The Sullivan Institute/Fourth Wall Community
:
The Relationship of Radical Individualism and Authoritarianism
(Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2003).

2004-Dearborn Mary V. Dearborn,
Mistress of Modernism: The Life of Peggy Guggenheim
(New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2004).

2004-Howard Richard Howard, “Lee Listening,” in
Paper Trail
:
Selected Prose, 1965–2003
(New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004).

2004-Stevens Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan,
Willem de Kooning: An American Master
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004).

2005-Housley Kathleen L. Housley,
Tranquil Power: The Art and Life of Perle Fine
(Glastonbury, Conn. and New York: Midmarch Arts Press, 2005).

2005-Tracy Sarah W. Tracy,
Alcoholism in America: From Reconstruction to Prohibition
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005).

2006-Marquis Alice Goldfarb Marquis,
Art Czar: The Rise and Fall of Clement Greenberg
(Boston: MFA Publications, 2006).

2006-Miller Betsy Wittenborn Miller, in
Dialogue: Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock
(New York: Robert Miller Gallery, 2006).

2006-Rose Barbara Rose, “Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock: Comrades in Art,” in
Dialogue: Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock
(New York: Robert Miller Gallery, 2006).

2006-Wilkin Karen Wilkin, “Maverick Mondernists,”
The New Criterion
, September 2006, 97.

2007-Landau Ellen G. Landau, “Action/Re-action: The Artistic Friendship of Herbert Matter and Jackson Pollock,” in
Pollock Matters,
ed. E. G. Landau and Claude Cernuschi (Boston: McMullen Museum of Boston College, 2007), 9–57.

2007-Levin Gail Levin,
Becoming Judy Chicago: A Biography of the Artist
(New York: Harmony Books, 2007).

2008-Kleeblatt Norman L. Kleeblatt, ed.,
Action/Abstraction: Pollock, De Kooning, and American Art, 1940–1976
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008).

2008-Küster Ulf Küster,
Action Painting
(Basel, Switzerland: Fondation Beyeler, 2008).

2008-Tucker Marcia Tucker,
a short life of trouble: forty years in the new york art world
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008).

2009-Sandler Irving Sandler,
Abstract Expressionism and the American Experience: A Reevaluation
(Lenox, Mass.: Hard Press Editions, 2009).

1. ND-Southgate.

2. ND-Kiesler.

3. Ronald Stein quoted in 1995-Gabor, 67.

4. In 1959, while her aunt was making her reputation as a painter and not just as Pollock's widow, Rusty Kanokogi, disguised as a man, won a medal at a YMCA judo tournament, because women were not allowed to compete. She later promoted women's judo all the way to its entrance into the 1988 World Olympics. Author's interview with Kanokogi, 6-18-2008.

5. Rusty Kanokogi quoted in Gary Smith, “Rambling with Rusty,”
Sports Illustrated,
March 24, 1986.

6. Author's interview with Edward Albee, 12-19-2006.

7. 1983-Myers, 103.

8. Eugene V. Thaw to the author, 5-11-2007.

9. 1990-Greenberg.

10. LKP, AAA, roll 3774, frame 319.

11. 1977-Rodgers, frame 356.

12. 1977-Diamonstein-1.

13. 1973-Gratz.

14. 1973-Gratz.

15. Robert Hughes, “Introduction,”
Lee Krasner Colleges
(New York: Robert Miller Gallery, 1986), n.p.

16. This appointment is documented by a letter dated January 14, 1971, on Marlborough Gallery letterhead to Krasner from Pamela Seager, secretary to Donald McKinney, president of the gallery, LKP, AAA, roll 3772, frame 97.

17. 1975-Nemser-1, 5.

18. 1977-Diamonstein, frame 390.

19. 1984-Myers, 71.

20. 1984-Myers, 71.

21. 1973-Freed.

22. 1968-Wasserman.

23. Sometimes these errors caused the misdating of paintings, which I have revised accordingly.

24. 1980-Cavaliere, 14.

1. Her mother entered Ellis Island with only one
s
in the spelling of their surname, while her father chose to double the letter after his arrival. Lee would later drop the second
s.
The pronunciation in Shpikov, where there are still people with the name, would imply Krasner with the double
s
.

2. Lee Krasner, note in AAA, reel 3771, frame 6, says that Joseph Krassner arrived in the U.S. in September 1900. That would mean almost a nine-year span between Lena (Lee) and the last child born in Russia. However Rose, the last born before Lena, was only six at the time of Lee's birth. Lee Krasner note, AAA, reel 3771, frame 8, says that “Papa (Joseph)—[arrived in] 1905 during Russo, Japanese, skirmish.”

3. S. M. Dubnow,
History of the Jews in Russia and Poland
, vol. III (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1920), 69–75.

4. “Jewish Massacre Denounced,”
NYT,
April 28, 1903, 6.

5. In 1905, at least 92,388 left Russia for America; in 1906, the number was 125,234; in 1907, 114,932 departed; and in 1908, when Krasner's mother and siblings left, they were part of a total of 71,978. Moses Rischin,
The Promised City: New York's Jews 1870–1914
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962), 270.

6. “Guggenheim's Jewish View,”
NYT,
April 27, 1909, 4.

7. “Guggenheim's Jewish View,”
NYT,
April 27, 1909, 4.

8. “Rabbi Sees Peril in Intermarriage,”
NYT,
May 10, 1909, 4.

9. “Future Americans Will Be Swarthy,”
NYT,
November 29, 1908, 7.

10. “A Hard Year for Hebrew Charities,”
NYT,
October 22, 1908, 9.

11. According to Lee Krasner's notes: Joseph Krassner was born December 10, 1870, so that he was not quite thirty-eight at Lena's birth. Anna Krassner, born July 17, 1880, was then twenty-eight. Her mother may have later lied about her age, making herself younger, as so many women did. These ages are confirmed by the author's interviews with several family members.

12. Born Isidor Krasner in 1896, Irving Krasner attended P.S. 109 from June 1909 through September 1910, LKP, AAA. Dates of birth and ages vary according to documents. For example, the 1910 U.S. Census completed in April lists Isidor as thirteen; Joseph is listed as forty and Annie as thirty-five. Esther was said to be twelve, Ida was said to be nine, and Lena was correctly listed as one and a half. The census taker appears to have confused the names and ages of the two eldest sisters, since in this author's interview with Rena (Rusty) Glickman Kanokogi, 6/18/2008, she made clear that her mother, Edith (or Ida), was the eldest sibling and was fourteen at the time of immigration. The census taker may not have been a fluent Yiddish speaker. These ages are taken from the passenger list of the
Ryndum,
on which the family arrived from Spikow, Russia, via Rotterdam, Holland.

13. LK note, AAA, reel 3771, frame 8.

14. 1983-Rose, 13.

15. 1979-Munro, 104.

16. 1979-Munro, 104.

17. 1987-Solomon, 112. Leo Rosten,
The Joys of Yiddish
(New York: McGraw Hill Book Company, 1968), 166.

18. 1979-Munro, 104.

19. 1979-Munro, 104.

20. 1979-Novak.

21. 1979-Novak. See also 1965-Friedman, 6, who wrote: “At home Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew, and English were all spoken.” It is highly unlikely that the family spoke Hebrew, which would have been reserved for prayers that they read and chanted.

22. 1979-Novak.

23. 1972-Holmes.

24. Contrary to accounts in previously published biographies of Jackson Pollock, the United States Census Report for 1910 confirms this address and William Weiss's residence with the Krasners.

25. 1987-Solomon, 111.

26. James Gersing, grandson of Esther (Estelle) Gersing, to the author, 9-17-2006.

27. 1979-Munro, 103.

28. 1977-Rodgers.

29. 1952-Zborowski, 295.

30. 1952-Zborowski, 124.

31. 1964-Seckler.

32. 1979-Munro, 104.

33. 1979-Munro, 104.

34. LK in 1975-Nemser-1, 83. This is also a source for Jeffrey D. Grove, in LKCR, 300, who also states that Krasner's siblings spoke Hebrew, but this is highly unlikely—though they must have read Hebrew and recited prayers.

35. The Krasner family appears to have moved into various rental homes in East New York, mainly on Jerome Street. By the time of the 1930 U.S. census, they were at 594 Jerome Street. At other times, they lived on Jerome Street at numbers 546 and 557.

36. See Eugene L. Armbruster,
The Eastern District of Brooklyn
(New York: 1912).

37. 1979-Munro, 103.

38. 1979-Novak.

39. 1979-Munro, 103.

40. “City Grows to His Cows and Then Tells New Lots Man to Move Them—He Won't,”
NYT,
12-17-1908, 1.

41. 1979-Munro, 103.

42. Today P.S. 72 is at a different location in a building from the 1970s.

43. 1987-Solomon, 110.

44. 1979-Munro, 104.

45. “City Grows to His Cows,”
NYT,
12-17-1908, 1.

46. 1964-Seckler.

47. Ruth Krasner Stein quoted in 1989-Solomon, 111.

48. 1965-Friedman, 5.

49. Krasner's notes in AAA, roll 3771, frame 48, probably for 1965-Friedman.

50. 1995-Hyman, 112–113.

51. 1995-Hyman, 113.

52. Daniel Bell, “The Background and Development of Marxian Socialism in the United States,” in Donald Drew Egbert and Stow Persons, eds.,
Socialism and American Life
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952), 309.

53. Paul Buhle,
From the Lower East Side to Hollywood Jews in American Popular Culture
(New York: Verso, 2004), 38–39.

54. 1979-Munro, 104; 1965-Friedman, 5–6. See also, LKP, AAA, roll 3771, frame 48.

55. James Gersing to the author, September 17, 2006.

56. Maurice Maeterlinck,
News of Spring and Other Nature Studies
(New York: Dodd, Mead, & Co., 1913), 47.

57. 1968-Campbell, 43. This statement exists in LK's hand in her papers, LKP, AAA, roll 3774, frame 703.

58. Maurice Maeterlinck,
The Blue Bird
(New York: Dodd, Mead, & Co., 1910), 19. This play was also popular at Washington Irving High School when Krasner attended. See the student magazine, the
Washington Irving Sketchbook
, ed. by Margaret McLaughlin, 1926, 31, in which Mary Altstein wrote a poem about her reading: “Oh, I've forgotten to include Maeterlinck's ‘Blue Bird.'”

59. 1973-Freed. LK quoted in letter from Donald McKinney in 1974-Schapiro, ed., 95–96.

60. See Kathryn Feuer, “Fathers and Sons: Fathers and Children,” in John Garraard, ed.,
The Russian Novel from Pushkin to Pasternak
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983), 68.

61. 1979-Munro, 106, gives the name as Wollrath. The Board of Education document lists Philip L. Walrath of 9230 110th Street in Richmond Hill, Queens, as a teacher in P.S. 72. He had been teaching there only since 1911.

62. 1979-Munro, 105–6.

63. 1972-Rose-1.

64. 1964-Seckler.

1. Graduation date recorded on a school pin; noted by LK, AAA, reel 3771, frame 7. Some accounts cite Lenore as her birth name, which was Lena; for example: 1983-Rose, 163, and 1996-Wagner, 107.

2. 1978-Cavaliere. The author found that a book of Poe's tales with an introduction by H. W. Mabre (New York: Century, 1924) was acquired by the Washington Irving High School Library in November 1925 as per the inventory still at the school.

3. 1978-Cavaliere.

4. I take for another example of Poe's influence on this generation that of my own father, born in 1912, just four years after Krasner. He loved Poe's poems and won awards in high school for reciting them.

5. Edgar Allan Poe, “The Oval Portrait,” http://eapoe.org/works/tales/ovlprta.htm [2010/02/08:].

6. Edgar Allan Poe, “The Oval Portrait,” http://eapoe.org/works/tales/ovlprta.htm [2010/02/08:].

7. 1978-Cavaliere.

8. 1912-Maeterlinck, 13, Montrose J. Moses, “Foreword.”

9. “Public School Notes,”
NYT,
October 7, 1922, 25.

10. Lee Krasner to the author, summer 1977 and again many times in the course of conversation.

11. 1975-Nemser-1, 83.

12. Aharon Ben Alexander Kaufmann, “Letter Regarding Education” (translation from the Hebrew title), in the second and last volume of
Pirhei Tzafon
, 1844, Vilna, 43–61, quoted in Israel Zinberg,
A History of Jewish Literature, volume XI, The Haskalah Movement in Russia
(New York: Ktav Publishing House, Inc., 1978), 100–101.

13. See “A Farewell to Girls High,”
Herald Tribune,
June 14, 1964. James W. Naughton designed the building.

14. Gwendolyn Bennett was one of the first African American students at the school. See “6 Colored Pupils Will Attend Girls High Prom Tonight,”
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
, April 23, 1920, 2.

15. 1977-Rodgers, frame 356.

16. 1975-Nemser-1, 83.

17. “Boys Say They Are Atheists,”
Brooklyn Eagle,
Novemeber 23, 1913, 4. The following quotation is from the same article.

18. “Silence Strike Ended,”
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
, November 24, 1913.

19. Arthur Schopenhauer, “Religion—A Dialogue,” reprinted in Will Durant, ed.,
The Works of Schopenhauer
(New York: Garden City Publishing, 1955), 467–68.

20. Joyce Antler,
The Journey Home: How Jewish Women Shaped Modern America
(New York: Schocken Books, 1997), 53.

21. 1979-Munro, 83.

22. 1964-Seckler.

23. The murals are by Barry Faulkner and feature the Dutch settlement of New York rather than the satire of
Washington Irving's A Knickerbocker's History of New York
. See
NYT,
5-9-1920, X8.
These murals are discussed and reproduced in Michele Cohen,
Public Art for Public Schools
(New York: The Monacelli Press, 2009), 60–63.

24. Rollin Lynde Hartt, “New York and the Real Jew,”
NYT,
6-25-1921, 659. This large number of students is verified by another article: “A Seat for Every Child,”
NY Tribune,
October 5, 1921, 22, that lists the enrollment as 5,835.

25. Obituary for James P. Haney,
NYT
, 3-8-1923, 16.

26. “A Seat for Every Child: Washington Irving High School,”
NY Tribune,
October 5, 1921, 22.

27. 1977-Rodgers, frame 356.

28. 1980-Slobodkina, vol. II, 248.

29. 1979-Munro, 106.

30. 1975-Nemser-1, 83.

31. http://www.reelclassics.com/Actresses/Colbert/colbert-bio.htm as of 13 September 2006.

32. 1964-Seckler.

33. 1964-Seckler.

34. Rabbi Hillel, quoted in Beruriah Hillela bat Avraham,
Pirkei Avot
(Lulu.com, 2008), 18. See also Leonard Kravitz and Kerry M. Olitzky,
Pirke Avot: A Modern Commentary on Jewish Ethics
(New York: URJ Press, 1993).

35. St. Augustine as quoted in two encyclicals by Pope Pius XI (1922–39). See as of 1-4-2007, http://www.goacom.org/overseas-digest/Religion/pius11-CastiC(1930)&QA(1931).html.

36. Charlotte Baum, Paula Hyman, and Sonya Michel,
The Jewish Woman in America
(New York: The Dial Press, 1975), 8. See Gail Levin, “Censorship, Politics, and Sexual Imagery in the Work of Jewish-American Feminist Artists,”
Nashim,
no. 14, fall 2007, 63–96.

1. Report to the Ladies' Advisory Council for the Woman's Art School, Cooper Union, 1927. In an exhibition brochure,
Lee Krasner: The Education of an American Artist
, The Cooper Union, January 16 to February 22, 1985, Barbara Rose wrote that Krasner entered Cooper in the fall of 1926, but her school record card in the registrar's office documents her entrance in February 1926.

2. 1926-27-Cooper.

3. 1926-27-Cooper, 7.

4. 1983-Hoffner.

5. 1983-Hoffner.

6. Report of the Ladies' Advisory Council for the Woman's Art School, Cooper Union Annual Report, 1924–1926, Susan D. Bliss, Secretary.

7. 1926–27-Cooper, 11.

8. See, for example, George Madden Martin,
Emmy Lou: Her Book and Her Heart,
illustrated by Charles Louis Hinton (New York: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers), 1902.

9. According to the transcript obtained at Cooper Union's registrar's office.

10. 1964-Seckler; 1968-Campbell, 62, also claimed that Victor Perard taught Alcove III on the complete figure.

11. Woman's Art School, report card notes she entered in 2-1926. See LKP, AAA, roll 3771, frame 26.

12. “Cooper Union Opens for Its 68th Year,”
NYT,
October 6, 1927, 14.

13. Ethel Traphagen's collection of nineteenth-century costumes is now in the Historic Costumes and Textile Collection at Ohio State University. She taught at Cooper Union from 1912 through 1931; see “Ethel Traphagen Leigh Is Dead; Founded Fashion School in '23,”
NYT,
April 30, 1963, 34, and http://www.cooper.edu/history/extended/hi00004.htm as of 3/18/2010.

14. “Nature Painter,”
Time
, March 10, 1941, see, as of 11-26-2007: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,790057,00.html. Leigh painted background dioramas for the African
Hall of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. His entire collection of work is in the Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

15. 1926-27-Cooper, 15–16. The 1927–28 catalogue is missing, but the description given in the next year's catalogue is consistent with this one.

16. “With the Artists,”
The Pioneer,
Cooper Union, February 4, 1927.

17. “With the Artists,”
The Pioneer
, March 25, 1927. This evidence contradicts Ellen Landau, who quite recently wrote: “Krasner (who did not take on the nickname Lee or change the spelling of her last name until the early forties)” in 2007-Landau, 10.

18. 1979-Novak.

19. Finding the “Krassner” family in the U.S. Census for 1930 on computerized data bases requires a misspelling of the surname as “Krasser.”

20. See, for example, Anne Wagner, “Lee Krasner as L.K.,”
Representations,
winter 1989, 42–56, who built an argument around Krasner's supposed concealment of her gender. 1996-Wagner, 188-89, argues unconvincingly that Krasner is “the bearer of a fictional masculinity.”

21. “The ‘New Woman' Studied by Experts,”
NYT,
September 25, 1927, E 20.

22. 1927-Gilman, 628.

23. 1927-Gilman, 628.

24. “Unhappily Married Urged to Hide Rift,”
NYT
, November 21, 1927, 30.

25. “Dr. Fosdick Urges Birth Rate Control,”
NYT,
December 5, 1927, 30.

26. “Dr. Fosdick Urges Birth Rate Control,”
NYT,
December 5, 1927, 30.

27. 1965-Friedman, 6.

28. A list of those who have had drawings hung at the monthly exhibition is in
The Pioneer
for November 11, 1927. Another list follows for Life Class, Antique, Preparatory, and First Alcove, listing Krasner in “Antique.”

29. “With the Artists,”
The Pioneer,
January 13, 1928.

30. This achievement was reported by Josephine Higgins, “With the Artists,” in
The Pioneer
, January 20, 1928, 6, who misspelled Krasner's name, “L. Kassner.”

31. “With the Artists,”
The Pioneer
, February 17, 1928, 6.

32.
The Pioneer
, March 23, 1928, 4.

33. 1979-Novak.

34. Among Krasner's papers at the PKHSC is Victor Perard,
Anatomy and Drawing
(New York: Victor Perard Publisher, 1928, second printing, May 1929; manufactured by the Kingsport Press, Kingsport, Tennessee), inscribed “For Lee Krasner, a souvenir of your formative years—Love! Gail Levin.” Comment from Krasner to author, 1978.

35. “Cooper Union Girls Win 110 Art Prizes,”
NYT,
May 24, 1928, 13.

36. 1964-Seckler.

37. Ernestine Lassaw, Ibram's widow, recalled this to the author, 3-14-2010.

38. “Dykaar, Sculptor, Leaps under Train,”
NYT,
March 11, 1933, 21.

39. “Bust of Coolidge on Exhibition Here,”
NYT,
December 31, 1927, 4. See also “The Dykaar Memorial,”
NYT,
March 23, 1934, 21. These two articles provide various information that does not agree. “Bitter” comes from LKP, AAA, reel 3771, frame 49.

40. “Bone and Muscle Man,”
Time,
September 14, 1942.

41. Death certificate for Rose Stein is number 15164 in Kings County (Brooklyn). She was then twenty-six years old and died in the Jewish Hospital, Brooklyn. Her eldest child, her daughter Muriel Pearl, was born August 17, 1922. At the time of Rose's death, Lee was nineteen and her sister Ruth (b. 1910) was only seventeen. LKCR, 301, gives the erroneous information that Ruth married William Stein when she was just fourteen, in “late 1927 or early 1928.” This is in error, since Ruth was already seventeen or eighteen at the time of Rose's death. Evidently Ruth lied about the age she married to make herself seem younger.