Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock

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I listen to my iPod on my walks. I also always carry my beloved Canon with me, 

but I'm not sure, if the camera itself would be enough to get me out there to 

exercise. I have three different routes to choose from to do my local walks, the 

walks that do not require me to hop into my car: they are the Avalon, the 

Newport, and the Beaches walks. A couple of days ago, on my Beaches walk, I 

listened to a "Writer's Voice" podcast in which the host Francesca Rheannon 

interviewed the author, art historian Gail Levin, about her new biography on artist 

Lee Krasner.  Click here here to listen to the podcast.

Lee Krasner

Lee Krasner, of course, besides having been an important artist by her own right, 

was also the wife of Jackson Pollock. Listening to this podcast prompted me to 

reacquaint myself with the books on Pollock in my library: The Museum of Modern 

Art publication Jackson Pollock by Kirk Varnedoe with Pepe Karmel (to co-incide 

with the MoMA Pollock 1998 retrospective, which I saw when I was living in NYC); 

and the Ellen G. Landau book Jackson Pollock from the same year.

Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner.

Besides these two books on Pollock (of which the MoMA one has a well written 

and interesting text, but the Landau book has better reproductions of his works), 

I also purchased a very special Metropolitan Museum of Art facsimile publication 

on Jackson Pollock's three sketchbooks from about 1937 to about 1941:

The Metropolitan's three sketchbooks by Jackson Pollock (American, 1912–1956), 

which date from about 1937 to about 1941, document an experimental and 

formative period for this major Abstract Expressionist. In much of the first two 

sketchbooks, Pollock followed the methods of his teacher-mentor Thomas Hart 

Benton (American, 1889–1975) by copying black-and-white reproductions of Old 

Master paintings from art books Pollock owned. These sketchbooks also contain a 

series of nude studies, two portraits of women, and the only known self-portrait 

drawing by Pollock. The third sketchbook consists of original compositions 

influenced by the work of Mexican muralists José Clemente Orozco and David 

Alfaro Siqueiros, and also by Surrealism.

Pollock's three sketchbooks are now published in a limited, numbered edition in 

facsimile form, presented in a rich, luxurious deep-brown cloth box. Each 

sketchbook facsimile is bound with chrome spiral bindings, as were the original 

sketchbooks, and stored on a separate tray in the box. They are accompanied by 

a booklet of illuminating essays, as well as comparative illustrations that provide 

detailed information about Pollock's sources for most of the seventy-one sheets 

of drawings. The edition is numbered and limited to 525 sets.

Set of 3 sketchbooks. 71 sheets total. Spiral bound. Includes an 88 page-book. 

Sketchbook I: 18'' x 2''. Sketchbook II: 13 7/8'' x 16 7/8''. Sketchbook III: 14'' x 

10''. Presented in box.

These four sketches by Pollock are in one of the above-mentioned note/sketch 

books. He was inspired by the work of El Creco featured in the art books he had 

access to at the time, in the late thirties:

And finally, here's a Lee Krasner self portrait from 1929-30: