What Do You See?
“Gaea” is a large, rectangular, abstract painting made by Lee Krasner in 1966 that is composed of a series of powerful black and dark pink paint strokes covering a dirty off-white background. The rough black paint, which is most densely organized on the edges of the canvas, creates sharp and jagged strokes that cut into the off-white and pink spaces on the canvas, almost like the black is interrupting the stability of the rest of the painting. When you look at the canvas, the more it begins to look like these sharp black spaces are forcing their way inwards toward the center of the work, intruding on the other colors as they cut and thrash through the layers, splitting the painting into different sections. It is clear that the pink and black can be distinguished as separate layers like they were painted on different surfaces on top of each other. The black paint looks unpolished as if the artist was quickly and carelessly moving the brush, creating smears and splatters throughout the canvas. Towards the top left of the canvas a spot of paint looks as if the artist dragged something over the paint before it dried, dragging out the color creating a messy splatter effect. In other parts of the painting the splatter effect exists along with spontaneous paint dripping from when too much paint was applied to the canvas. As we move towards the center of the painting, you notice the artist’s choice of colors is dull and ominous as if there is a layer of fog used as a filter over the painting. There isn’t a lot of pop and excitement from the colors but more of a natural and earthy hue to the black, dark pink, and off-white. The name of the painting "Gaea" refers to the personification of Earth in a goddess form which reflects Krasner’s use of the grainy colors and powerful brush strokes.
How does the painting appear over time?Underneath the black and pink the base of the canvas is a dirty off-white that takes up most of the space of the canvas. The base layer appears beaten and tarnished with a gritty texture. Looking at the base layer you can tell there are scratches and areas where too much paint was used. If you were to run your hand over the canvas, you could feel the dried pieces of paint that create tiny bumps and rifts along with the piece of art and the faded yellow patches that exist on the canvas. The more you look at this painting you begin to notice the artist's brush strokes are aggressive and violent but hold somewhat of a pleasing appearance. After viewing the painting as a whole you began to see how much of the painting is composed of dark pink and off-white compared to black. Although the jagged black paint appears to be infecting most of the painting when in reality it takes up the least space. You will start to notice the dark pink and black that the artist uses, clashing with each other all throughout the center of the canvas as if they were in a fight. Although these two colors look as if they are fighting, they rarely cross into each other, and when they meet together, there is a fine line distinguishing them. Both the black and pike paint strokes appear to create and fill the canvas with circular and egg shapes. As you look at these circular shapes you will notice that some of them form the outline of a woman's figure and others appear to be more breast shaped which were common implications in Krasner's work.
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What does "Gaea" Show Us?
The powerful paint strokes by the artist look as if they weren’t created with a purpose but represent a contrast between the two colors. The contrasting ideas in this piece of work might reflect the struggle between life and death? In an article by Robert Hobbs he states “The mixture of violence and beauty unexpected though not unprecedented in Kranser’s work.” (Hobbs, 2007). This observation by Hobbs is prominent in “Gaea” which involves two different colors as painted powerful and furious brush strokes with an organic feel that intertwined to form woman-like figures emphasizing the beauty of Earth as a goddess. In the bottom right corner of the canvas Krasner painted the outline of a woman figure with pink strokes representing natural beauty while the black paint cuts through this image creating a sense of violence and anger. Kranser's work as said by Rose “is recognized by its style, rhythm, its mastery of color and nuance, its fine detail and its floral, naturalistic, or organic imagery.” (Museum of Modern Art, 1984). Krasner uses her organic style of circular shapes to form woman figures and creates nuance between the pink and black paint by creating drips and splashes of paint like in the upper left corner. All of these small pieces form to create a bigger picture that represents Krasner’s idea of how she feels the Earth would look as a goddess in her own style.
A multimodal project by Chris Thien for Dr. Sturm's ENGL 1102 course Georgia State University Spring 2022
Works Cited
“First Major Krasner Retrospective to Open at Museum.” MoMA, no. 33, Museum of Modern Art,
1984, pp. 7–7, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4380945.
Hobbs, Robert. “Lee Krasner’s Skepticism and Her Emergent Postmodernism.” Woman’s Art
Journal, vol. 28, no. 2, Old City Publishing, Inc., 2007, pp. 3–10,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20358125.
1984, pp. 7–7, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4380945.
Hobbs, Robert. “Lee Krasner’s Skepticism and Her Emergent Postmodernism.” Woman’s Art
Journal, vol. 28, no. 2, Old City Publishing, Inc., 2007, pp. 3–10,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20358125.