Edge of Color

Two paintings from Krasner’s very first solo exhibition, reunited here after 70 years, provide a window into the artist’s rarely examined early geometric abstractions

The early works of Abstract Expressionist pioneer Lee Krasner (1908–84), in her first solo exhibition in 1951, emphasized geometric relations. But during this same period, Krasner would often destroy or paint over her canvases to create new works. In a special and ambitious exhibition, Kasmin reunites the only two surviving paintings from her first solo show, displayed together for the first time in over 70 years. Replete with 18 color plates, related archival material and newly commissioned texts, The Edge of Color foregrounds a rarely examined chapter of Krasner’s five-decade career. Beyond the scope of an exhibition catalog, the book takes its reader behind Krasner’s paintings to provide never-before-published visual evidence regarding these early paintings. It positions these works, realized in the upstairs bedroom at the artist’s home in Springs, NY, in relation to Krasner’s contemporaries including Jackson Pollock and Piet Mondrian.