POLLOCK-KRASNER HOUSE

  • Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock
  • 830 Springs-Fireplace Road, East Hampton, NY 11937-1512

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement. In 1945, Pollock married fellow Abstract Expressionist artist Lee Krasner (1908-1984), who became an important influence on his career. Despite their mutual influence on each other, their relationship and Pollock’s success would somewhat overshadow her career.

With a loan from art dealer Peggy Guggenheim, they moved from New York City to The Springs near East Hampton where they purchased a house and a barn that was turned into a studio.

The house is open to the public, and it contains all the furnishings and artifacts that were in the house at the time of Krasner’s death in 1984. This includes his jazz record collection, the artists’ personal library, and original paintings and prints by Pollock and Krasner. The studio is where Pollock painted his famous poured paintings. He was widely noticed for his technique of pouring or splashing liquid paint onto a horizontal surface enabling him to view and paint his canvases from all angles. The studio floor is covered with evidence of this singular process.


Pollock struggled with alcoholism for most of his life, and in 1956, Pollock died at the age of 44 in a car crash.


In December 1956, after his death, Pollock was given a memorial retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.


Lee Krasner lived and worked at the house at Springs, splitting her time between it and an apartment in New York, until her death in 1984. The couple are buried next to each other at Green River Cemetery in Springs.