"At that point it certainly would be called abstract. That is to say, you had a model and there'd be one or two or three people there drawing the model but otherwise you had abstractions all around the room, even though the model was in front of you"
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“Abstract” here isn’t a style label so much as a social fact: a room deciding, collectively, what kind of seeing counts. Krasner describes a scene that’s almost comic in its plainness - the model is literally right there - yet most people are painting as if she’s already disappeared into gesture, shape, and attitude. The punch is that abstraction isn’t born from rejecting reality; it’s born from the decision to treat reality as raw material rather than a mandate.
Krasner’s intent feels partly corrective. Abstract Expressionism is often sold as heroic spontaneity, a clean break from representation. She quietly complicates that myth. The model doesn’t vanish; she becomes a catalyst. A few artists keep drawing the body “properly,” but the dominant energy in the room is translation: how presence turns into marks, how a figure becomes a situation.
The subtext is about permission and power. In a mid-century art world that loved to cast its men as lone geniuses, Krasner frames abstraction as something more communal and observational than the legend admits. She’s also hinting at a gendered irony: the (often female) model is present, exposed, and concrete, while the artist’s status comes from making her “abstract” - converting a person into an aesthetic problem.
Context matters: Krasner moved between rigorous training and the insurgent New York School, and she knew how quickly categories harden into gatekeeping. Her line lands because it treats abstraction as an atmosphere, not an escape: a room full of people choosing not to copy what they see, but to declare what seeing can be.
Krasner’s intent feels partly corrective. Abstract Expressionism is often sold as heroic spontaneity, a clean break from representation. She quietly complicates that myth. The model doesn’t vanish; she becomes a catalyst. A few artists keep drawing the body “properly,” but the dominant energy in the room is translation: how presence turns into marks, how a figure becomes a situation.
The subtext is about permission and power. In a mid-century art world that loved to cast its men as lone geniuses, Krasner frames abstraction as something more communal and observational than the legend admits. She’s also hinting at a gendered irony: the (often female) model is present, exposed, and concrete, while the artist’s status comes from making her “abstract” - converting a person into an aesthetic problem.
Context matters: Krasner moved between rigorous training and the insurgent New York School, and she knew how quickly categories harden into gatekeeping. Her line lands because it treats abstraction as an atmosphere, not an escape: a room full of people choosing not to copy what they see, but to declare what seeing can be.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
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