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1 Eleanor Munro I am never free of the past. I have made it crystal clear that I believe the past is part of the present which becomes part of the future. I believe in continuity... I can't conceive of anything that is not human. It has nothing to do with limited concepts of good and evil, man and superman. Painting has not to do with nothingness. Only, you have to have the key to be able to read the picture. The[[strikethrough]]y[[/strikethrough]] key is what is within the artist. The artist can only paint what he or she is about... On the other hand, it is naive to assume in this day and age that only what is within your own visual key is the total reality..... Lee Krasner, East hampton, 1977 Krasner, at seventy, talks like that, pushing ahead, correcting herself [[strikethrough]] in hindsight, [[/strikethrough]] picking up and driving [[strikethrough]] up [[strikethrough]] to a new end. It is her mode of operation, in work and life [[strikethrough]] as in ? [[/strikethrough]]. The life-force, whatever that [[strikethrough]] is [[/strikethrough]] may be, reasserts itself even over its own past, over discouragement and contradiction, [[strikethrough]] [[?]] [[/strikethrough]] to get [[strikethrough]] to [[/strikethrough]] where it has to go: ahead. She works in [[strikethrough]] fiercely [[/strikethrough]] concentrated spells then for a [[strikethrough]] period [[/strikethrough]] time does little but take care of chores and wait for a return of the fire. Those post-work, post-exhibition fallows are not especially [[strikethrough]] [[?]] [[/strikethrough]] enjoyable. When I visited Krasner in July, she was in the throes of one. I asked whether if felt good to have done a good job and let down now. I'd give anything to get back. That's the height. Life is beautiful at moments like that. I asked whether it felt good to have [[strikethrough]] become successful [[/strikethrough]] been recognized,at last, as one of the major figures of the Abstract Expressionist movement, twenty years after Jackson Pollock's death and as many [[strikethrough]] after [[/strikethrough]] of fighting her way out of the box of identification with him. No it doesn't make me feel great. It's 30 years late. Too bad it didn't happen 30 years ago. It would have been of help then. But I have had obstacles and I have dealt with them. And I have come through. Krasner has come through with works that are not easy–any more than their maker with her heavy voice, her sullen frequently contemptuous evaluations and ironic summings-up, is an easy person. She descends to
