Guggenheim once asked Krasner to exhibit in a show for women artists, but Lee declined, probably rejecting the notion women artists should be singled out so categorically. The two women never got along. Lee thought the wealthy patron wanted to have sex with her husband. It was common knowledge Guggenheim had had affairs with other artists, including Tanguy and one of her future partners, Max Ernst. In 1943, Ernst left Guggenheim for Dorothea Tanning, a young American Surrealist painter.
It wasn’t unreasonable for Lee to think Guggenheim was trying to seduce her very masculine husband (10). In the film Pollock, Harris, as Jackson, and his real-life wife, actress Amy Madigan as Peggy, act out an unsuccessful sexual effort alleged to have taken place between the two. Guggenheim’s biographer makes a convincing case to show it is unlikely that Jackson and Peggy ever had sex, in spite of the rumours[58].
Krasner finally received overdue recognition in a celebrated 1983 retrospective. The exhibition then toured several rounds of U. S. museums. In his long review in Time Magazine, Robert Hughes points out the fiction of the scenario which tries to explain Krasner’s comparatively small and unnoticed production of works during her life with Pollock. That myth depicts her as the vulnerable female who was overcome by the famous male. Hughes points out if Pollock had married someone “with a less acerbic and combative temper than Krasner’s, his demands, his egotism and his fondness for the bottle might have done her in” (53). Particularly because of his behaviour in his final year, unfaithfulness could have been added to the judgment list.
Concerning a specific work of hers, Krasner insisted she had painted over one of Pollock’s discarded canvases. However, Gabor reports recent tests have revealed she actually painted over one of her own canvases. Of course, there might be more than one painting involved in the apparent contradiction[59].
Early in her relationship with Pollock, Krasner took control of his art. She later discovered Sidney Janis, Pollock’s dealer for years, had sold several Pollock paintings to members of his family at very low prices[60].
After Pollock’s death, Krasner displayed dozens of her own works on her walls, but no Pollock paintings. Karen Wilkins observes, “Krasner’s marriage to Pollock, while unquestionably of crucial importance to his own short professional life and his evolution as an artist, occupied only fifteen years of Krasner’s nearly fifty years in her career as a painter…” (121) The final sentence before the closing credits of Ed Harris’ movie states: “Lee Krasner lived for another twenty-eight years (after the death of Pollock), during which she managed the Pollock estate and produced the biggest, boldest, most brilliantly coloured works of her career, many of them painted in Jackson’s studio.” (45) She died alone in a hospital room at age seventy-six in June 1984.
According to Gabor, Lee left an estate worth about $10 million (28). However, Solomon says it was $20 million[61]. There is agreement on the fact she left no burial instructions, but gave specific directions to preserve the house in Springs on Long Island as a museum and study centre, now known as Pollock/Krasner House and Study Center[62].
Just as there was a retrospective of Pollock’s works at MoMA after his death, there was also one of Krasner’s works six months after her death. Additionally, in 2000, the Brooklyn Museum of Art had an Exhibit of Krasner (6 October, 2000 to 7 January, 2001), which was one of several international exhibits of her work.
In 2005, Christie’s auction house expects an untitled 1961 Krasner oil and enamel on canvas (162.5 × 147.9 cm) to sell for half a million dollars[63].
Gothic, 1944. Oil on canvas, 215.5 × 142.1 cm, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Number 14, 1951, 1951. Enamel on canvas, 146.4 × 269.2 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Yellow Islands, 1952. Oil on canvas, 143.5 × 185.4 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Number 17A, 1948. Oil on canvas, 86.5 × 112 cm, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Guggenheim’s Early Sightings
“I am doubtful of any talent, so what even I choose to be, will be accomplished only by long study and work.”[64]
After much advice and encouragement, Guggenheim decided to see more of Pollock’s works. She went to his apartment/studio, where she was to meet him. It was an event which would be described in several biographies, plays and movies, and from different points of view in several memoirs. Most agree Guggenheim arrived at the Pollock apartment before Jackson himself arrived.
Testing the lady’s patience even more was her climb up four flights of steps. In some versions, including the Harris movie, Guggenheim climbed the flights only to find he wasn’t home. She returned to street level where she found the drunken Pollock. He and Krasner had returned home from Peter Busa’s wedding. Furious, Guggenheim then climbed up the stairs again, this time with the artist and Krasner[65].
Guggenheim then at first saw only Krasner’s works. She complained she did not come to see the works of ‘L.K.,’ the signature Lee used at the time. Years later, Robert Hughes of Time Magazine stated Guggenheim always seemed to be so jealous of Krasner’s place in Pollock’s life that “she refused to acknowledge her as an artist.” (53)
When Guggenheim finally saw Pollock’s works in the apartment she was impressed, but she was not yet enthusiastic. Before making a decision concerning a one-man show, she said she would have to call on the expert opinion of her advisor, Marcel Duchamp. In 1925, Duchamp had participated in the first exposition in Paris of Surrealists and related artists[66].
Once Duchamp saw the Pollock paintings en masse, he expressed approval as well, though in an inarticulate way and with his characteristic reserve. A conversation between him and Pollock surely would have been one of few words. However, the master’s authoritative nod was the final push Guggenheim needed to gamble on Pollock. His first one-man show was held later that year.
After her partner and art advisor, Max Ernst, left her in 1943, Guggenheim relied on the advice of three people in her entourage, especially Howard Putzel, a former Los Angeles art gallery owner, the Chilean artist Matta and, less officially, James Johnson Sweeney. Putzel became her confidant and secretary in Paris. Sweeney would become chairman of the divisions of painting and sculpture at MoMA. All three of Guggenheim’s inner-circle advisors directed her to young Americans.
Guggenheim’s initial association with Lee Krasner, then Jackson Pollock, was through others whom she already knew and trusted. She believed in Putzel and he believed in Pollock. Likewise, she respected Duchamp and he approved of Pollock. Herbert Matter, the photographer/designer, also saw Pollock’s works at the artist’s apartment. Matter told James John Sweeney, and he in turn told Peggy Guggenheim. (In 2003 Matter’s son, Alex, reported that he found a trove of 32 paintings alledged by Pollock and given by the artist to his father.)[67]
Matta joined those who recommended Pollock to Guggenheim after meeting the artist during discussions about automatism. The discussion group included artists Robert Motherwell, William Baziotes, Peter Busa, and Jerome Kamrowskia. Peggy Guggenheim assembled a jury to select works for a Spring Salon. The judges included Duchamp and Sweeney, and most important, Piet Mondrian. He was the highly respected master of the de Stijl movement, recently arrived in Manhattan.
It seems Guggenheim’s driving obsession was sex. Some say she allowed herself to be overly involved with the