Untitled is part of a late-1940s series called Little Images, none larger than three feet, that Krasner made on a tabletop in her bedroom. For this work she used repetitive strokes to apply thick paint, often squeezed straight from the tube. The composition is a gridlike structure filled with indecipherable marks. Krasner likened these symbols to Hebrew letters, which she had studied as a child but could no longer read or write. In any case, she said, she was interested in creating a language of private symbols that did not communicate any one specific meaning.
Gallery label from "Collection 1940s—1970s", 2019
This work is part of Krasner’s Little Image series of the late 1940s, which she began soon after she and her husband, Jackson Pollock, moved from New York City to Springs, New York, on Long Island. Working in a small bedroom she used as her studio, she applied thick paint—sometimes directly from the tube—in rhythmic and repetitive strokes, giving equal attention to every inch of the canvas. Like many of her peers, Krasner invented a language of private symbols that implied but did not specify meaning.
Gallery label from Abstract Expressionist New York, October 3, 2010-April 25, 2011.
