iThe Metropolitan Museum of ArtUpper East Side
Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous
The first major New York presentation devoted to either artist in more than 20 years.
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Before you reach a single painting, a narrow hallway plays a silent video of collaged film and photographs of the Long Island cottage where Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock lived. Hyperallergic calls the installation one of the most gorgeously designed in the Met's history.
Twelve chapters run from the 1930s to the end of both lives, with over 120 works from more than 80 lenders. Some galleries hang the two together, others give each their own. Critics disagree on the pairing. In Cultured, David Rimanelli said "He was better than her", and Julia Bryan-Wilson strongly disagreed. Krasner's The Seasons runs nearly 17 feet, the knot your earbuds become by the time the 6 train reaches Union Square.
Gallery 899 is a windowless corner of the second floor, and one preview report called it crowded. It's free with Museum admission and open until 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays. The Met is closed Wednesdays. It runs to 31 January 2027.
Editor's pick
Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock, wife and husband, in one Met exhibition. Neither has had a major New York show in over twenty years, so this is the first chance in a generation to judge them side by side.
Look for
The entrance video
A silent, collaged montage of film and photographs of the artists' Long Island cottage plays in a narrow hallway before the first painting.
Krasner's Bald Eagle collage
Cultured's critics say the show opens with her 1954-55 collages, made from spattered scraps of canvas from Pollock's studio.
Pollock's Full Fathom Five (1947)
Actual junk is embedded in the paint, which Cultured's panel singled out.
The Mosaic Table (1947)
A decorative table with concrete poured by Pollock. Rimanelli called it hideous but liked that it was included.
Good for
- Evening Visits
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
- Rainy Days
Skip if
You dislike close, windowless galleries: temporary partition walls keep you near the paintings.
With kids
Teen Studio workshops on 17 October are for ages 12-14 and 15-18, and Discoveries on 22 November has a session for ages 5-13.
Also at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
9
- Krasner and Pollock: Past ContinuousCourtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Collection in Focus: Modern European CurrentsPhoto: Ariel Ione Williams, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
- Guggenheim Pop: 1960 to NowCourtesy of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
- Taryn Simon | Father Country I Do Love YouCourtesy of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
- The Metropolitan Museum of ArtHugo Schneider, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Neue Galerie New YorkFrancesca.hyanna19 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Solomon R. Guggenheim MuseumAjay Suresh, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design MuseumEpicgenius, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- American Museum of Natural HistoryIngfbruno, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0