Lee Krasner: From the Depths of Despair to the Height of her Career

From her childhood in early 1900s Brooklyn to the end of her life in East Hampton, Lee Krasner painted with a distinctive, courageous vision. It was this vision that pushed her to persevere as an artist in spite of adversity and tragedy. In this episode of Expert Voices, discover Lee Krasner’s resilient spirit and groundbreaking talent through her large-scale masterpiece The Eye is the First Circle, offered as a highlight of Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction. Contemporary art specialist Saara Pritchard joins Eleanor Naire, curator at the Barbican Art Gallery and organizer of the upcoming exhibition Lee Krasner Living Colour, in an exploration of how The Eye is the First Circle exemplifies Krasner's iconic vision. Painted in 1960, this immense canvas is the crowning embodiment of Krasner’s Umber paintings, the highly lauded series of twenty-four works that have risen to acclaim as the creative pinnacle of her celebrated oeuvre. Created in the years following the sudden and tragic death of her husband, Jackson Pollock, the Umbers are defined by a gestural ferocity and ambition of scale unprecedented in Krasner’s earlier output.