How did Lee Krasner’s career change after Jackson Pollock’s death?

Following the death of Jackson Pollock in 1956, Lee Krasner’s artistic output underwent a significant transformation. She began creating a series of enormous paintings characterized by thick, expressive strokes of umber paint. These works abandoned the figurative elements she had previously explored, instead presenting raw energy that may have served as an expression of her profound grief.1

In the decades that followed, Krasner continued to build upon the passion of her large-scale abstractions while also returning to her interest in hard-edged figurative elements and cerebral control.1

Despite her own significant contributions to Abstract Expressionism, her professional reputation was eclipsed by Pollock’s for the first 25 years after his death, partly due to her dedicated efforts to advocate for his work. Her stature as an independent artist was eventually reaffirmed through major international retrospectives, which highlighted her role as both Pollock’s partner and a pioneering figure in her own right.1