Art History

Night Creatures by Lee Krasner - 1965 (76.2 x 108cm) Acrylic Paint On Paper

The artist, Lee Krasner, used acrylic paint and paper to create this artwork. The benefits to using acrylic paint as opposed to oil paint or watercolours is that they dry quickly while still being very vibrant. This was very important for the artist, as there are so many layers to this painting that she didn’t necessarily want to mix together, but she wouldn’t have wanted to spend weeks waiting for the layers to dry. Also because she was painting in layers she would have wanted more vibrant paints so that they would cover the paint underneath. The choice to use paper as opposed to a canvas was also very purposeful. The reason behind this is the artist, Lee Krasner, wanted a smooth surface to paint on so the swirling pattern would be easier to achieve, since canvases have a lot of texture. When creating this abstract painting Krasner would have painted the layer of red that you can see behind everything else. This was purposely done messily to make the painting feel more rustic and intense. Next she would have painted a layer of white, also messily, purposely leaving places for the red paint to show through. This layer of white helps create a striking contrast against the red and black. Then when the white paint was dry she would have taken a thinner paint brush and created the black swirls. Some of the swirls are shaped rather purposely to look like eyes and faces. These would be the eyes and faces of the ‘Night Creatures’. These shapes are not incredibly obvious, meaning you would have to look at the painting very closely to even notice, but it gives the painting almost an aura of darkness and fear. This painting is supposed to remind the audience of the creatures they see in the dark. She did multiple layers of the black and white, and possibly the red in certain areas, this was to build up colour, and to create new textures, patterns and colours that catch people's eyes. The colour pallette chosen consists primarily of black, white, red and grey, where the black and white mixed slightly. These colours all create negative connotations, and manufacture feelings of unease, which in collaboration with the swirling shapes, sets the tone for the painting. This painting is very large, at 76.2cm x 108cm. This also adds to the feeling of unease, as the size of the painting is intimidating, and is supposed to make the audience feel small in comparison. Krasner was a part of the abstract expressionism movement, which began just after World War 2. This movement included many different stylistic features that often related to the sorrow and confusion of the post war society, and the uncertainty of where to go from here. These features were things like geometric patterns, prominent brush strokes and the general lack of recognisable figures.This art movement was heavily influenced by the great depression, which was happening towards the beginning of Krasner’s career as an artist. The abstract expressionism movement is said to be influenced by the surrealism movement that started in the 1920’s, and many artist of the abstract expressionism movement took inspiration from the surrealism movement.

This is relevant to my practical work because of the media that Krasner uses, it is the same that I have used various times throughout my artwork. She is also working with a lot of contrast here, which you can see in a few of my works. Also the idea that Krasner was a woman in art who was overshadowed by her husband in a relevant theme in a lot of my work.