Composition, 1943

Composition, 1943, abstract still-life oil painting created in 1943 by American artist Lee Krasner. It exemplifies Krasner’s style of geometric abstraction grounded in floral motifs and rhythmic gestures.

Before she met Jackson Pollock, Krasner was a better-known artist than the man she would marry and who would later eclipse her. The Brooklyn-born artist collaborated with Pollock from the time they met in 1942. After she met Pollock she became less prolific as a painter but no less experimental, and she pushed the boundaries of Cubism toward Abstract Expressionism. Pollock’s influence and interest in myth, ritual, and Jungian theory empowered her to break free of figuration. In turn, Krasner gave Pollock structure and an art history foundation for his feral Action paintings. She would often incorporate bits of his old canvases in her paintings. More than a muse or wife, Krasner was his peer and, in many ways, his teacher.

She painted this floral still life after she had been introduced to the work of Cubists, such as Picasso, Joan Miró, and Henri Matisse. The choppy, dense paint texture Krasner uses to create her bold shapes establishes a compelling tactile component to the heavily abstracted image. The flowers and vase are reduced to circles, trapezoids, triangles, and other geometric shapes delineated by thick, black outlines. Krasner’s curling signature (signed with a double “s,” which she later dropped) adds a contrasting set of curves to the otherwise ordered forms. Krasner’s relationship with Pollock has dominated discussion of her work but, in her role as one of the few female members of the New York school, Krasner made a vital contribution to a movement that would alter painting profoundly.