Lee Krasner’s Collages

Lee Krasner - Milkweed - 1955 - Oil, paper, and canvas collage on canvas - 82 3/8 x 57 3/4 inches (209.2 x 146.7 cm) - Collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery - Buffalo, NY (click photo for larger image)Abstract Expressionist Lee Krasner’s work and style evolved quite dramatically over time. During the late 1930s, when she studied the work of Picasso, Matisse and other modernists, she discovered collage. However, it wasn’t until 1951 that she began to experiment with collage techniques herself. 

Milkweed belongs to a series of canvas collages Krasner created, based on ideas from the black-and-white paper collages she had made in 1951, although the later works are more layered. Milkweed combines several techniques developed by the New York School, including Action Painting and Color Field, and unconventional materials such as scraps of recycled canvas.

Lee Krasner was extremely self-critical. She reviewed and altered her own work regularly, and was not beyond destroying paintings she felt didn’t satisfy her standards. This process of slashing and cutting her own canvases was the seed for a series of canvas collages she produced.