Kasmin is proud to announce its fourth solo exhibition at the gallery of work by acclaimed American Abstract Expressionist painter Lee Krasner, featuring paintings from the collections of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and several prominent institutions. On view at 509 West 27th Street from February 22 through March 28, 2024, Lee Krasner: The Edge of Color, Geometric Abstractions 1948–53, will be the first exhibition dedicated to an underrecognized chapter of Krasner’s career that emphasizes geometric relationships, foreshadowing several of Krasner’s most defining painting series. Kasmin has represented the work of Lee Krasner through the Pollock-Krasner Foundation since 2016.
Critic John Yau has recently suggested that “Krasner’s resistance to categorization is one of her enduring strengths.” Best known for her large-scale paintings and collages employing bold color and sweeping gestures, Krasner remained dedicated to exploring new directions throughout her five-decade career. This exhibition examines one such direction, foregrounding an overlooked body of work that sets the pace for major innovations in the decades to follow.
The only two surviving paintings from a suite of fourteen canvases exhibited in Krasner’s first-ever solo exhibition will be on view together for the first time since their debut in 1951. On loan from the Museum of Modern Art, Number 3 (Untitled) (1951) will be reunited with Number 2 (1951), which will be on view in New York for the first time in over 70 years and was the largest painting Krasner had ever made to date. Reviewers at the time of their debut likened Krasner’s schematic vistas of glowing color to the Dutch abstractionist Piet Mondrian, though not without their sardonic gendered language. Despite their generally positive critical reception, the works remained unsold, and Krasner later notoriously destroyed or painted over all but these two canvases to create a landmark series of collage paintings in the mid 1950s, several of which were exhibited at Kasmin in 2021.

      Lee Krasner