Contemporary Abstract Painter | Dorothy Krakovsky

THE ARTIST

Dorothy Krakovsky grew up during the Depression in Minnesota, the daughter of Russian immigrants. She married and supported her husband, a musician, but, following her divorce, was forced to raise her daughter without financial support. She was finally able to pursue her passion for art late in life, graduating with a B.A. from California College of Arts and Crafts in 1967 and an M.A. in painting from the University of Iowa at age 47 in 1971. After obtaining her Masters, Krakovsky moved to California.

Krakovsky suffered from debilitating depression and was eventually put on disability benefits. Living on public assistance, Krakovsky lacked the funds to buy materials and therefore, after Iowa, painted only sporadically. In order to continue painting, she enrolled whenever possible in inexpensive senior citizen or extension classes offered by universities, including California State Northridge and Santa Monica College, which provided her with the paints and canvases she needed.

Unable to afford to store her work, Krakovsky abandoned or gave away almost all her paintings although some slides of her work during her years in California remain. Opposite: Krakovsky in painting class at California State University, Northridge, March 17, 1990. Courtesy of The Los Angeles Times and Rolando Otero, photographer.

Dorothy Krakovsky in painting class at Hunter College

Dorothy Krakovsky standing besides three of her untitled paintings in Professor Robert Swain’s advanced painting class at Hunter College.
C. 2012. Paintings 72 in x 72 in. Acrylic on canvas.

In her eighties, to be closer to her daughter, Krakovsky moved to New York City, where she obtained subsidized housing. In 2009, Krakovsky took classes at the Art Students League with Larry Poons. In 2010, Krakovsky studied at Hunter College with Robert Swain, a renowned colorist. Krakovsky’s dream had always been to paint on the large canvases which Hunter College provided, but following her withdrawal from Hunter due to ill health, she could no longer afford the paints and canvases she needed.

Fortunately, in 2011, a relative agreed to purchase the large canvases and paints for Krakovsky so she could continue painting in her studio apartment, which she converted into a workspace.

Provided with the materials she needed, in an explosive surge of creativity that stunned her friends and family, Krakovsky painted over 60 five by six feet and some six by six feet paintings and over 30 smaller works during the last four years of her life.

Krakovsky painting Minnesota, lake district. 2014. Acrylic on canvas. 60 in. x 72 in.

In 2014, at the age of 90, Krakovsky had her first and only exhibit at the Soapbox Gallery in Brooklyn, where nine of her large paintings generated substantial interest, including a lengthy appraisal in CUNY magazine. However, in declining health, Krakovsky had no time or interest in selling her paintings, most of which remained in storage until her death.

After the Soapbox exhibit, despite suffering from COPD and, later, cancer, Krakovsky continued painting at a furious pace, often finishing a large painting in a few days. She died in 2015 in New York. Most of her paintings have never been exhibited.

THE PAINTINGS

Pushy, pushy! C. 2012-2013.
Acrylic on canvas. 72 in. x 72 in.

Although Krakovsky may be fairly considered a contemporary abstract painter, her compositions follow no single school or movement. While many artists have one recognizable style, Krakovsky’s paintings employ a wide range of brush-strokes, marks, and techniques.

In early works during her last four years painting, Krakovsky painted vibrant colors using broad brush-strokes.

Pushy, pushy! C. 2012-2013.
Acrylic on canvas. 72 in. x 72 in.

Ball of String #1. 2014.
Acrylic on canvas. 60 in. x 72 in.

However, in later works, Krakovsky used a wide variety of strokes- some pencil-thin- in darker, somber colors.

Ball of String #1. 2014.
Acrylic on canvas. 60 in. x 72 in.

Celebration! 2013.
Acrylic on canvas. 60 in. x 72 in.

In some of her denser works, different colored strokes and marks collide and seem to fight for space on the canvas.

Celebration! 2013.
Acrylic on canvas. 60 in. x 72 in.

Chere’s Gift. 2013.
Acrylic on canvas. 60 in. x 72 in.

Yet in other works, the strokes, some so gossamer thin they seem transparent and pulled apart, create a much lighter composition.

Chere’s Gift. 2013.
Acrylic on canvas. 60 in. x 72 in.

Cubes in G Sharp. 2014.
Acrylic on canvas. 60 in. x 72 in.

Although Krakovsky admired the Abstract Expressionist (“AbEx”) movement, some paintings reflect the influence of Cubism, which the AbEx movement rejected.

Cubes in G Sharp. 2014.
Acrylic on canvas. 60 in. x 72 in.

In the beginning… 2013.
Acrylic on canvas. 72 in. x 72 in.

Krakovsky admired the “all-over” works of Milton Resnick and Larry Poons, where no part of the canvas is unpainted, and her works include many “all-over” paintings. Some of those paintings, like one of her largest (opposite), project furious movement, and even chaos.

In the beginning… 2013.
Acrylic on canvas. 72 in. x 72 in.

Bouquet #1. C. 2013-2015.
Acrylic on canvas. 60 in. x 72 in.

Yet in many of her other works, the unpainted canvas is critical to her composition. For example, in a few of Krakovsky’s paintings, a single image seems to “float” in the center of unpainted canvas, projecting stillness.

Bouquet #1. C. 2013-2015.
Acrylic on canvas. 60 in. x 72 in.

The wild variations in Krakovsky’s work resulted from her approaching each canvas without a plan and painting intuitively. Her embrace of “action painting” meant that no color, style, or technique used in one painting was guaranteed to appear in the next. When she was finally able, in the last few years of her life, to paint on her own terms, Krakovsky emerged, at times forcefully, at other times quietly, with a voice which was urgent, unrestrained, and completely her own.

“Dorothy Krakovsky’s paintings are like free form jazz, where the brush strokes, color, and marksmanship create a new language. There is no hesitation; nothing is contrived. Her remarkable energy is translated directly into her work. Her painting is about liberation, and she paints without any reservations about what she wants.”

Robert Swain, artist and former Professor at Hunter College Art Department (Ret.)