It is difficult to zero in on any element in artist Lee Krasner's painting "Right Bird Left." The dark pinks, jungle greens, tangerine oranges and indeterminable shapes and quick brush strokes try their best to compete for attention but end up confusing even themselves. Amidst the uncertainty of the post-World War II era, "Right Bird Left" played an important role in the Abstract Expressionist movement that shifted the art world's attention from Paris to New York City.
"The 1950s were kind of a confusing time for Americans," Carl Schafer, associate director of the Ball State University Museum of Art, said. "They were coming off of World War II and people were questioning all sorts of things at that time; Abstract Expressionism was a way of expressing a certain lack of understanding of what was going on in the world."
Krasner's "Right Bird Left" and "Pythoness" by Alfred Leslie, were donated to the Museum of Art by longtime benefactor David Owsley at the end of last year, Schafer said. A sculpture from the same art movement, "Kopernicus" by Theodore Roszak, was purchased around October with funds given to the museum by Richard and Dorothy Burkhardt, Schafer said. Owsley, who is related to Ball State's founding family, has been very generous and has loaned or donated approximately 2,500 works of art to the museum, Shafer said.
"Right Bird Left" was on loan to the Museum of Art for several years, but owning it is much better for the museum, Schafer said.
"Owning the work of art, for one thing, increases the status of our collection and the status of Ball State University at large as an art collecting institution," he said. "We know that [the artworks] will be here perpetually. We know that we can continue to use them as teaching tools for the students and we don't have to worry in any way about them ever being withdrawn."
All three works of art are a part of the Museum of Art's display of post-World War II art, Museum of Art Director Peter Blume said. They are important to the museum's collection because they give visitors a glimpse at life at the time they were created, he said.
"Everything kind of changed at the end of World War II with the explosion of the atomic bomb, and I think the way artists made pictures [during that time period] was the way that change was made manifest," Blume said.
All three pieces were a part of the Abstract Expressionist movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Abstract expressionism was an art movement that attempted to strip the act of painting down to its most fundamental level; it wanted to explore how paint behaves on a canvas, Schafer said. This kind of painting bears no semblance to reality but showcases the textures and brush strokes in a composition, he said.
Of the three artists, Krasner was perhaps the most important to the Abstract Expressionist movement and the most well-known, Schafer said.
"Lee Krasner had a commitment to the idea of 'all-over' painting in which she just attempted to dispel anything that could be a reference to anything real," he said. "She just wanted to achieve something that turned into a completely abstract composition and this is one of the outstanding examples of her work and we are extremely fortunate to have it."
"Right Bird Left" is one of the more important pieces in understanding Krasner's work as an Abstract Expressionist and was appraised at $2 million by sale at an auction of comparable paintings, Blume said.
The Museum of Art's entire collection is on display as a linear timeline of art dating from 1250 to the present, and students who come to see Lee Krasner's painting can get an idea of how art has developed during the last 50 years, he said.
"The art museum is really an exceptional resource to have in a small American city," Blume said. "This is a very special place not only for art students but for the bigger part of civilization. It might not otherwise be available anywhere else and it is a resource that I think students here might want to take advantage of."
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