The Met is Finally Treating Lee Krasner as Pollock’s Equal—Will the Market Follow?
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibition “Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous,” opening in October, will present Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner as a “story of equals,” bringing together 120 works from more than 80 lenders. ARTnews notes that the market still values Pollock far above Krasner, citing Pollock’s $61.2 million auction record versus Krasner’s $11.7 million record for The Eye is the First Circle (1960), set at Sotheby’s in 2019. The article argues that Krasner’s market remains narrow, with buyers often seeking only certain “digestible” styles and unrealistic price points, a dynamic described by Saara Pritchard (now a partner at Fair Warning, formerly at Sotheby’s and Christie’s). It also traces a key market intervention to 2016, when Kasmin gallery secured rights to sell Krasner’s work through the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and sold a major painting at Art Basel Miami Beach for around $6 million.
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This story was covered in Museum Power Plays and a Shaky Art Market