The artist (1908-1984). Uris Buildings Corporation, New York; [Sold in 1976 at Sotheby's Parke Bernet, Inc., New York, May 17, 1976, Lot 311, “Important Post War and Contemporary Art” to]; [Pace Gallery];  [sold 1985 at Sotheby’s, New York, November 5, 1985, Lot 27, “Contemporary Art” to]; [Robert Miller Gallery and Eugene W. Thaw]; sold in 2000 to LACMA.

Lee Krasner’s Abstract Expressionist canvases are packed with color and pattern, with layers of forms that overlap and intermingle. By 1942 Krasner had begun to explore collage, cutting up photographs and recycling fragments of her own work to form new compositions. By the 1950s her collages had grown in both scale and ambition. Desert Moon comprises vibrant, carefully arranged snippets of discarded paintings cut into vertical and biomorphic shapes.

Krasner’s work has previously been overshadowed by her links to famous male artists: she married Jackson Pollock, became friends with Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning, and studied with Hans Hofmann, who said of one of her paintings, “This is so good, you would never know it was done by a woman.” More recent scholarship and exhibitions have restored her work to the center of Abstract Expressionism.

Wall label, 2021.