Untitled 1938

Lee Krasner made this untitled charcoal on paper drawing sometime in her career. The composition is all about angles and edges, like she's building up the image from shards of glass. What I love is the way she lets the charcoal trail off, leaving a kind of ghost image. You can see how the form emerges gradually from the surface of the paper. It’s a real study in how to make something from almost nothing. Looking closely, you can see how the smudges and blurred areas hold everything together. I'm particularly drawn to how she renders the glass objects, so fragile, yet given such weighty presence. This piece is all about the back and forth between seeing and feeling, solidity and ephemerality. It reminds me a bit of the early Cubist still lifes of Picasso or Braque, but with an added layer of emotional rawness. Like a conversation across time.