Shellflower 1947

Lee Krasner made Shellflower with paint, and a whole lot of looking, layering, and reconsidering. The all-over composition gives you the sense that every inch was mulled over, each colour considered in relation to the last, and the next. Up close, you see how Krasner built up the surface. Short flicks and dabs of pigment, almost like she was constructing something, bit by bit. The blues and whites create a cool ground, with warm pinks, reds, and yellows sparking across the surface. See how she’s scratched and scrubbed at the paint, adding texture and revealing the layers underneath? It’s a process of constant adjustment, of building up and breaking down. Krasner’s paintings are like conversations – each mark a response to what came before. This feels like a continuation of work by Joan Mitchell, but with its own distinctive rhythm and voice. Art is like that, an ongoing back and forth!