Gagosian
October 19–December 18, 2026
Gagosian, Olney Gleason, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation are pleased to announce an exhibition of Lee Krasner’s paintings and works on paper from the 1960s at Gagosian’s rue de Ponthieu gallery in Paris. This collaborative presentation is the first solo exhibition of the artist’s work in France and continues the renewed international attention brought by the 2019–21 touring European retrospective Lee Krasner: Living Color.
The Paris exhibition, opening on October 19, 2026, spans a pivotal decade in Krasner’s artistic development, characterized by vibrant gestural abstractions. It coincides with the first major dual survey of Lee Krasner’s and Jackson Pollock’s work, Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous, on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from October 4, 2026, to January 31, 2027. Larry Gagosian noted, “
The 1960s marked a key turning point in Lee Krasner’s life and career, as her distinctive artistic voice was seen on its own. At a moment when her talent and contributions are finally being acknowledged on an institutional scale, we are honored to contribute to that story by presenting a show of her work in Paris for the very first time.” Eric Gleason commented, “This important exhibition focusing on work from the 1960s will further illuminate Krasner’s position as one of the most versatile and courageous painters of the postwar era. "
Comet, 1966–70, oil on canvas, 70 × 86 inches (117.8 × 218.4 cm) © 2026 Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Christopher Stach, courtesy Olney Gleason, New York
Krasner is one of the most significant artists of the New York School. Throughout the 1960s, living between Springs, East Hampton, and her apartment and studio in Manhattan, she threw herself into a focused period of experimentation and reinvention. Tackling canvases of unprecedented scale and increasingly lyrical compositions, Krasner worked with newly restricted palettes and began to apply paint directly from the tube. These developments gave rise to the Umber paintings (1959–62) and Primary Series (1960s), now considered among the pinnacles of her painterly achievements. Krasner’s influence on American art deepened across the decade, consolidated in part by the 1965 retrospective Lee Krasner: Paintings, Drawings and Collages at London’s Whitechapel Gallery, curated by Bryan Robertson. In 1969, she turned her attention to calligraphic color experiments and original compositions in gouache on paper.
The exhibition at Gagosian includes works spanning this period, culminating in the majestic oil on canvas Comet (1966–70), now in the collection of the PollockKrasner Foundation in New York. The exhibition marks the first time Krasner’s work has been the subject of a solo presentation in France, a country whose modernist legacy, particularly the work of Henri Matisse, proved formative to her development as a painter. Krasner made an important visit to Paris in 1956, where time spent at the Louvre deepened her engagement with the history of European painting. Her relationship with France was formally recognized in 1982, when she was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres.
The exhibition is Krasner’s debut at Gagosian. Olney Gleason continues to represent the artist’s work globally in partnership with the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.
"I like a canvas to breathe and be alive. Be alive is the point."
—Lee Krasner.
Arguably the most crucial proponent of Pollock, Krasner was instrumental in propelling his career and cementing his reputation as the most influential living American artist, having introduced him to Willem de Kooning, Clement Greenberg and Peggy Guggenheim, as well as other key figures. Living with Pollock at their home near The Springs, Long Island, Krasner developed some of her most compelling series, including her Little Image paintings. Defined by thick impasto and repetitive abstract symbols, these works are recognized as among her most noteworthy contributions to Abstract Expressionism.
Following Pollock's death from an automobile accident in 1956, Krasner dedicated the remainder of her life to solidifying Pollock's legacy, while continuing her own artistic endeavors. During this time of newfound solitude, Krasner realized her iconic Umber Paintings, which convey a distinctive rawness and intensity that was unprecedented in her oeuvre until this point. Fiercely composed of abstract forms through explosive brushwork in a parsed-down palette of primarily umber, cream and white, this series is considered among Krasner's most psychoanalytically evocative work.
With paintings from the 1960s, Krasner embraced Pollock's artistic achievements in size, all-over composition, gestural method and engagement with Jungian psychology, which emphasized the importance of the individual psyche and personal quest for wholeness. From time to time, Krasner incorporated staring eyes, a motif that harkened back to her own earlier work. Other repeated marks suggest foliage, wind, feathers and wings. It is with these works that Krasner further delved into ideas about self-knowledge.
Reflecting on work from this period, in 1973, Krasner remarked: "My painting is so biographical, if anyone can take the trouble to read it." This assertion is evident especially in works from the 1960s, which stand as vehicles by which the artist confronted her turbulent 11-year relationship with Pollock and the effects of his death in a particularly poignant and personal mode of expression. At once unruly and lyrical, each canvas becomes animated by Krasner's individual and newly powerful backhand gesture, advancing in a rhythmic motion from right to left in vast, curvilinear sweeps. Vigorously thrusting and stabbing with her brush and body, these works present Krasner's sophisticated integration of sprays and arcs with nodules of paint. Accordingly, Krasner's works from the 1960ssignal her emergence from behind her husband's shadow and the beginning of Krasner's critical recognition of her own unique and noteworthy artistic impulses.
In 1978, the exhibition Abstract Expressionism: The Formative Years positioned Krasner in her rightful place alongside Pollock, de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell and Adolph Gottlieb. Exhibition catalogue.
Shortly after Krasner's death, the Museum of Modern Art presented a major retrospective of her work.
Today, Krasner's work has been exhibited worldwide and is included in the permanent collections of major institutions, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Jewish Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Tate, London; Cleveland Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; National Gallery of Australia, Sydney; among many others.
