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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Letters

Lee Krasner was an artist, not just a wife

Abstract expressionist painter Lee Krasner (1908–1984) at work, 1981.
Abstract expressionist painter Lee Krasner (1908–1984) at work, 1981. Photograph: Ernst Haas/Getty Images

Some years ago I was bemused to see that Lee Krasner was labelled as “wife of Jackson Pollock” at the Tate Modern, while in the same room Jackson Pollock didn’t seem to require to be anyone’s husband. I thought we had moved on from this, but Adrian Searle’s review (Stepping out of the shadow of Pollock, 30 May) of the new Krasner exhibition at the Barbican in London leaps rather than stumbles into the same trap. Krasner’s husband is referred to throughout (including sole mention in the headline!), as if we can only appreciate Krasner’s work through the prism of the husband’s life and work. I’ll be visiting the exhibition shortly and am confident that the Barbican will not be making the same mistake as Searle. I am nonetheless grateful that the reviewer has brought the exhibition to my attention.
Richard Ingham
Lower Largo, Fife

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