"Abstract Expressionist painter Lee Krasner (1908-1984) was the only critically recognized woman artist among the founders of the New York school of painting after World War II. Although her historical importance was understood at an early date, the significance of her work - and her position as an essential figure in postwar American art - has been appreciated only in recent decades."--BOOK JACKET. "Unlike her male colleagues, who viewed painting as a primal expression of the self, Krasner saw her art as an open-ended exploration. Her complex and original works were dense with intellectual and cultural suggestion, incorporating human and foliate forms, allusions to myth and ancient script, and deliberate ambiguity."--BOOK JACKET. "This lavishly illustrated book, which accompanies a major traveling exhibition of Krasner's paintings, brings new insight to her remarkable achievements. Art historian Robert Hobbs takes a fresh look at her work, examining its forms and iconography to reveal the impressive originality and complexity of her creation. Beginning with Krasner's experiences at art school in the 1930s, and continuing through fifty years of her creative work, Hobbs traces the artist's development as she gradually came to terms with a maturing self. Drawing on a variety of sources, including in-depth interviews with Krasner and her friends, Hobbs reveals Krasner as one of the most remarkable figures in postwar art."--BOOK JACKET.