Lee Keasner, Untitled, 1949, Oil on Canvas, Signed and Dated “Lee Krasner ‘49′ on Reverse, Private Collection

Untitled is part of a series from the late 1940s called “Little Images”. Krasner made these paintings—none larger than three feet—while working on a tabletop in her bedroom. To make this work, she applied thick paint using repetitive strokes, often squeezing paint straight out of the tube. The resulting composition was an allover, gridlike structure filled with markings that look like symbols or letters.

Krasner had studied Hebrew as a child, but as an adult she no longer could read or write the language. Formally, she likened the indecipherable symbols in these paintings to Hebrew but insisted that she was interested in creating a language of private symbols that did not relate to one specific meaning.