Lee Krasner, Bird Talk, 1955, oil, paper, canvas on cotton duck
Lesley Vance on Lee Krasner, in Artforum’s artists on ab-ex feature:
At one point in the early 1950s, Krasner grew dissatisfied with some drawings she had been working on in her studio, so she tore them to shreds and tossed the scraps on the floor in frustration. The sight of those fallen fragments triggered much of her subsequent work–collages made from ripped-apart drawings and, later, from torn sections of paintings.
I had a similar moment of destruction born from discontent a few years ago, only instead of tearing up my painting, I scraped away paint. This act of erasure produced a more intuitive composition and opened the door to the type of spaces I now pursue.
Leslie Vance at Kordansky
Brian Dillon on erasure, palimpsest, etc. [fort-da]