Primeval Resurgence, 1961

Lee Krasner’s Primeval Resurgence epitomizes abstract expressionist painting in numerous ways. First, the premise of the work is that through the act of painting the artist endeavors to define herself. Thus the brushstrokes are understood as a direct expression of the artist’s inner feeling. Second, the paint is spontaneously applied with techniques including gashes, streaks, scribbles, and sprays (the latter being the results of Krasner flinging a paint-loaded brush at the canvas). The finish is left raw, so the painting retains the drama of its creation. Third, the “all-over,” or edge-to-edge, composition renounces compositional hierarchies of center and periphery, or fore- ground and background. Instead, Krasner emphasized the flat picture plane, animating the surface by deploying white and black forms that reverse positions of figure and ground. Finally, the scale of the work is governed by the artist’s body and her physical, gestural painting process.