{"data":{"id":"504","type":"artwork","attributes":{"id":504,"topgoose_id":11221,"portfolio_id":null,"tms_id":504,"title":"White Squares","display_artist_text":"Lee Krasner","display_date":"c. 1948","accession_number":"75.1","dimensions":"Overall: 24 1/16 × 30 1/8 in. (61.1 × 76.5 cm)","medium":"Enamel and oil on canvas","department":"collection","classification":"Paintings","credit_line":"Gift of Mr. and Mrs. B. H. Friedman","is_virtual":false,"is_portfolio":false,"portfolio_tms_id":null,"portfolio":null,"edition":null,"publication_info":"","description":"\u003cp\u003eLee Krasner, \u003cem\u003eWhite Squares\u003c/em\u003e, c. 1948. Enamel and oil on canvas, overall: 24 1/16 × 30 1/8 in. (61.1 × 76.5 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Mr. and Mrs. B. H. Friedman 75.1. © The Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York\u003c/p\u003e","object_label":"\u003cp\u003eFrom 1946 to 1949, Lee Krasner made a series of small-scale works she called the \u003ci\u003eLittle Image \u003c/i\u003epaintings, in which she sought “a merging of the organic with the abstract.” She described some of these paintings, including \u003ci\u003eWhite Squares\u003c/i\u003e, as “hieroglyphic.” Krasner was fascinated by ancient languages. Raised as an Orthodox Jew, she learned to copy (though not to read) Hebrew letters, which fostered a lifelong interest in the abstract character of writing dissociated from meaning, and ultimately led to the marks of her “hieroglyphic” works.\u003ci\u003e White Squares\u003c/i\u003e is covered in a dense, white lattice of open squares, with an evenness that recalls a page of text. Yet the traces of yellow, blue, and green visible beneath the black ground give the painting a sense of depth. The concentric rectilinear forms may evoke another of Krasner’s fascinations, foraminifera—spirally arranged marine organisms. Indeed, Krasner had a collection of crystals, shells, and foraminifera, which perhaps explains why the painting was originally titled by a friend (and inscribed on the stretcher) “Passion for Collecting.”\u003c/p\u003e","ai_alt_text":"Black and white textured painting of overlapping hand-drawn squares and rectangles with rough brushstrokes.","alt_text":null,"visual_description":null,"on_view":false,"created_at":"2017-08-30T16:40:12.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-03-31T06:00:05.165-04:00","images":[{"id":92065,"url":"https://whitneymedia.org/assets/artwork/504/75_1_cropped.jpg"}]},"relationships":{"artists":{"data":[{"id":"722","type":"artist"}]}}}}