travel the journey lines of two ultra modernist artists.

One painter.

One composer.

lee krasner - acrhives of american art photo — Ultra-modern.
Serialism.
Dissonant Counterpoint. Abstract Expressionism.
*Terms these artists helped define*.

Photo: Lee Krasner

u l t r a m o d e r n

U l t r a M o d e r n : looking at the two words is like looking at an ultra violet light. It buzzes. It glows in the same way the ultra modern classical compositions of Ruth Crawford Seeger, and abstract art work of Lee Krasner radiate. Unique and vibrant.

If you've never heard of these two artists, take just a few minutes to get a brief feel for their work…

String Quartet, "1931" : Leggiero -Ruth Crawford seeger

"Towards One" - Lee Krasner

"Rising Green" - Lee Krasner

Isn't the Leggiero 2 minutes and 15 seconds of anxious, delicately ferocious, energy?

Aren’t Towards One and Rising Green an eye full of thick, olive green, fuchsia, gold and ivory brushstrokes with that same daring energy?

Not directly connected, both artists were born a few days after the turn of the 20th century. Both Ruth and Lee were the ultra-modernist rock stars of their own time - they leaned into the abstract and unique elements of their respective art and produced stunning work.

They explored frantic, aggressive, and dissonant relationships between their materials.

Ruth

As the first female to be offered the Guggenheim Fellowship, Ruth Crawford traveled to Berlin in 1930 intending to write a symphony in the homeland of modernist composer Arnold Schoenberg.

Instead she walked away with one of the great additions to American Modern Classical music, her dynamic 1931 String Quartet.

In a world where women "simply couldn't compose at the same level as a male composer" She was heralded as being able to "sling dissonances like a man".

Ruth's studies led her to mentor, and eventual husband, fellow American Composer Charles Seeger. When they met, Charles was of the mindset that "women couldn't write symphonies", but fell into the enchantment and skill of Crawford's talent. Alongside Ruth, Charles developed his musical theories.

Ruth also stepped in as step-mother to his children. Taking over the household and having children of her own. She eventually transitioned her composition efforts into the rising folk revival, releasing folk songbooks at critical acclaim.

If you're a fan of Pete Seeger (American Folks Singer and Activist), his Grandmother Ruth, carved the path for the Seeger family reputation in music.

“She could sling dissonances

like a man”

Lee

Lee Krasner spent her young days as a conservatory artist confronting a similar message to Ruth's. Her original, experimental, ideas were deemed unsuitable for a woman, yet she continually reinvented her style throughout the course of her career, intentionally steering away from her peers.

That style was the beginnings of Abstract Expressionism.

Continuously raging against the mantra that "women can't paint", Lee's art hustle continued outside of school. She juggled being a waitress, artist model, and studying for her teaching credential at night.

I was introduce to Lee Krasner's story through fictional book, The Muralist. A story about Krasner, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and their collective involvement in the Federal Art Project under Roosevelt's New Deal.

If you like imagining a world where the President supports the arts and employs them with Government funding, you might enjoy it.

In the real world, Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock were indeed in the same story. Already making waves of her own in the abstract world, when Lee met Pollock at a mutual showing after-party, she was fascinated by both him and his work. She quickly became his biggest advocate, some say almost against her own best interest.

As she championed his work, her working relationships were now focusing their attention away from Krasner’s work, and directly on Pollock.

The two married and moved out to the country where they spread out on a farm of their own, but still competed for space. Canvas space, and space for their artistic ego.

After Jackson's untimely death, Lee began to shine brighter in the public eye in her later years. The women's revolution thrust Lee into a new kind of spotlight.