Lee Krasner (1908-1984), Self-Portrait, 1931-1933. Oil on canvas. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, the Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund. 2021.12.1 © 2021 The Pollock- Krasner Foundation / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York.With a recent, diverse acquisition of 13 new works, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is able to “increase the range of voices represented,” says Jeffrey N. Brown, interim director and CEO of the museum. Brown adds that by increasing these voices, “it expands the array of stories that can be told through the works of art in our care.”

The new holdings include modern and contemporary art, American and European decorative art, and the most recent acquisition: Self Portrait (ca. 1931-1933) by abstract expressionist painter Lee Krasner (1908-1984). 

The piece offers a unique insight into the innovative artist’s 40-year career, as one of her earliest pieces made as an art student in New York City, before she transitioned into abstract collages and color field works. 

The museum further explains that it provides a counterpoint to her later composition, Broken Gray (1955), already in the collection. “One of five known self-portraits, this example is the most accomplished in terms of mood and handling of paint. With her penetrating, fixed gaze, Krasner appears self-assured and almost defiant, traits of a strong personality in the context of a male-dominated art world at the time,” the museum notes. “This compelling, modern portrait adds to the Wadsworth’s collection of paintings by modern women artists as well as artists’ self-portraits spanning hundreds of years.”

Brown notes the museum’s overall excitement and pleasure in furthering their “long-standing commitment to creating and preserving a collection that reflects the community and provides access and insight into different time periods, cultures and perspectives.” —

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