COLLECTIONS: Pollock-Krasner Study Center

The Pollock-Krasner Study Center contains collections relating to Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, and Long Island Artists.  The collections, described below, fall into seven categories:

1. Pollock-Krasner Personal Records

2. Manuscript Files

3. Oral Audio and Video Histories

4. Video and Film Collections

5. Photographic Collections

6. Southampton Collections

7. Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center Records

Lee Krasner Letters

Gift of Ronald Jay Stein, 24 January 1994.These letters were sent to Lee Krasner from Igor Pantuhoff (her relationship before Pollock), Nina Pantuhoff (Igor’s sister), George Mercer (a dear friend) and David Gibbs (her relationship after Pollock). 

Pollock-Krasner Financial Records

Cancelled checks and bank statements created by Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner between 1946 - 1954. 

Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner’s Personal Library

This library includes books, periodicals and ephemera.  These items are on the shelves of the Pollock-Krasner House and are found as they were left by the artists.  Included are 192 books with publication dates ranging from 1839-1983.   In addition, a listing of the many sound recordings owned by the artists can be found here.  

Krasner Family Photograph Collection

Donated by the estate of Ronald Jay Stein (Lee Krasner’s nephew), 2001. See also listing under photographs, below.

Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner papers, circa 1914-1984, bulk 1942-1984

This collection belongs to the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution. The Pollock-Krasner Study Center maintains a copy of this collection on microfilm, its original state previous to these letters being digitized.  

The papers of abstract expressionist painters Jackson Pollock and wife Lee Krasner date from circa 1914 to 1984, with the bulk of the material dating from 1942 to 1984. The collection documents their personal and professional lives, as well as the legacy of Jackson Pollock's work after his death. Found are biographical material, correspondence, writings by Krasner and others, research material, business and financial records, printed material, scrapbooks, artwork by others, photographs, interview transcripts, audio and video recordings, and motion picture film.

Jackson Pollock Catalogue Raisonné (JPCR) and 1995 Supplement Collections

The Jackson Pollock Catalog Raisonne Archive documents the entire known artistic works of the artist.  The archive includes correspondence, photographs, ephemera, clippings, and manuscript material documenting each work of Jackson Pollock’s art, collected by the editors.  This research produced five printed volumes, four in 1978 and one in 1995.  This is THE FILE of record for all of Jackson Pollock’s artistic works. 

Lee Krasner Catalogue Raisonné Collection (LKCR)   

One of the few women artists ever to be the subject of a catalogue raisonne, this spans over 50 years: the Depression and WPA era, the World War II period, the start of Krasner's liaison with Jackson Pollock, the development of abstract expressionism, the rise, decline, and death of Pollock, and Krasner's emergence as a full-fledged artist on her own.  This is THE FILE of record for all of Lee Krasner’s artistic works. 

Ruth Stevens Appelhof Collection

Ruth Stevens Appelhof, Ph.D. (1940-2020), spent the summer of 1974 living with Lee Krasner in East Hampton while researching her Master's thesis on the artist. After retiring from Guild Hall of East Hampton, where she was executive director from 1999-2016, she expanded on her Krasner research (her original interview tapes are at Syracuse University), conducting interviews with members of the artist's circle (digitized) and collecting additional research material for her memoir, Lee and Me: An Intimate Portrait of Lee Krasner. Milan: Officina Libraria, 2020, which was published shortly after her death. The collection was deposited under the terms of her two research grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. For more information about Appelhof's life see: https://www.easthamptonstar.com/obituaries/202049/ruth-appelhof-guild-hall-director

B. H. Friedman Collection

Bernard Harper Friedman (1926-2011), an author who retired from the real estate business to devote himself to writing, was a friend of Pollock and Krasner and a collector of works by both artists.  His books include a monograph on Alfonso Ossorio (Abrams, 1973), a biography of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (Doubleday, 1978), and several works of fiction.  This collection comprises Friedman's research files and photographs collected for the first Pollock biography, Jackson Pollock: Energy Made Visible.  New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972.  The bulk of his papers are at the Archives of American Art.  

Francis V. O'Connor Collection 

Francis Valentine O'Connor, Ph.D. (1937-2017), a distinguished art historian, was the leading authority on Jackson Pollock and the New Deal art projects, and the author of an online history of mural painting in America.  A member of the Jackson Pollock Authentication Committee ad its successor, the Pollock-Krasner Authentication Board, he was the co-editor, with Eugene V. Thaw, of the four-volume Jackson Pollock Catalogue Raisonne (Yale University Press, 1978) and editor of the Catalogue Raisonne Supplement (Pollock-Krasner Foundation, 1995).  For more information about O'Connor's life see: https://vimeo.com/268391281

Jeffrey Potter Collection  

Jeffrey Brackett Potter (1918-2012), a friend and neighbor of Pollock and Krasner, conducted extensive interviews with Pollock's family members, fellow artists, and members of the local community, excerpts of which were published in his Pollock biography To a Violent Grave: An Oral Biography of Jackson Pollock (New York: G.P. Putham’s Sons, 1985).  The collection comprises Potter's original interview tapes (digitized), vertical files of research material and some tape transcriptions, pocket diaries with notes on conversations with Pollock, and photographs collected for the book. For more information about Potter's life see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Potter

Ronald Stein Collection

Donated by the estate of Ronald Jay Stein, Lee Krasner’s nephew, 2001. Family photographs, photographs of Stein’s artwork, exhibition invitations, brochures, correspondence and ephemera related to Stein’s artistic career, Lee Krasner’s address book, ca. 1963.

Ann Gibson Audio Interview Collection

Gift of Ann Gibson, 1998. Cassette tapes of Gibson’s interviews with artists for her book, Abstract Expressionism: Other Politics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997). Recorded between 1981-1991. Not Digitized.

Ibram Lassaw Video Collection

Gift of Denise Lassaw, 24 September 2019.22 DVD and 1 VHS tape of interviews and programs related to the sculptor Ibram Lassaw (1913-2003) and New York School artists.  Not Digitized

Gerald Monroe Audio Interviews with WPA Federal Art Project Artists Collection

Gift of Gerald Monroe, 27 November 2017. Sixty small format reel-to-reel audio tapes of interviews for Monroe’s doctoral dissertation, The Artists’ Union of New York (New York University, 1971). Recorded between 1969-1974. Not Digitized.

Jeffrey Potter Audio Interview Collection, 1980-1983

Purchased 31 December 1991. Interviews with Pollock and Krasner’s friends, family and colleagues, made while researching To a Violent Grave: An Oral Biography of Jackson Pollock (J.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1985).145 individuals + 5 with tapes missing.  Digitized.

Video and Film Collections

The museum collects video and films that relate to 20th century American art and its influences. The holdings include a subset of material from the ongoing Artists on Film series and art-themed films. See attached lists - coming soon.

Krasner Family Photograph Collection

Donated by Lee Krasner’s nephew.  This same collection is also listed under Pollock-Krasner Personal Records, above.

Maurice Berezov Photograph Collection

Gift of AE Artworks, 2003. Black and white photographs of Lee Krasner in her New York City apartment/studio, ca. 1939, and in Pollock’s barn studio, September 1956.

B. H. Friedman Photograph Collection

Gift of Bernard Harper Friedman (1926-2011), 1992. Images collected by the author for the first Pollock biography, Jackson Pollock: Energy Made Visible (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974).

Martha Holmes Photograph Collection

Purchased from Time, Inc., 2000. Fifteen black and white photographs, taken by Holmes (1923-2006) for LIFE magazine in April 1949, showing Pollock at work in the barn studio and relaxing at home with Krasner, visiting friends, and outside the house. Printed in 1998 for the exhibition, “The LIFE Shoot: Photographs by Martha Holmes,” Pollock-Krasner House, 30 July – 31 October 1998.

Hans Namuth Estate Photograph Collection

Gift of the estate of Hans Namuth, 1991. Hans Namuth was a German-born photographer, who specialized in portraiture.  He photographed many artists, including the Jackson Pollock. This collection includes 134 black and white photographs: Pollock at work in the barn studio in 1950, outside the studio in 1951, a few later pictures of him, photographs of the house in the 1980s and a group of his artworks. Namuth's photos of Pollock served to increase Pollock's fame and recognition and led to a greater understanding of his work and techniques. Digitized.

Hans Namuth MoMA Photograph Collection

Gift of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The collection includes 97 black and white photographs of Pollock at work in the barn studio, 1950. Digitized.

Mark Patiky Photograph Collection

Gift of Mark Patiky, 2003. Color photographs of Lee Krasner in the barn studio, at work on Portrait in Green, 1969. From the exhibition Lee Krasner Before and After: Photographs by Maurice Berezov and Mark Patiky, 7 August – 31 October 2003.

Artist File Collection

The Pollock-Krasner Study Center has collected artist ephemera in the form of gallery and museum announcements, invitations and catalogs for abstract expressionists, contemporary and Long Island based artists, since its inception in 1988.   Many of the materials were acquired by mail. Additionally, materials have been donated to the Center over time by various donors and date back to the 1950’s. Special attention is paid to artists who maintain studios on Long Island’s east end and have exhibited their works there.  Information about more than 870 artists are represented in this collection.  

Ideal Museum for the Paintings of Jackson Pollock (Architectural Model)

Architect Peter Blake created the model in 1949, based on Mies Van Der Rohe’s 1942 project “a museum for a small city.”  The model was exhibited at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York, and then took up residence in Pollock’s studio, where it can be seen in the background of many of Hans Namuth’s famous photographs of Pollock painting.  Unfortunately, the original model fell apart over time.  In 1994, Peter Blake authorized that a replica of the model be recreated. Today, it is exhibited in the Stony Brook Southampton Library.  

Parrish Art Museum Book Collection

This collection contains books from Samuel L. Parrish’s personal collection (which founded the Parrish Art Museum Library) as well as publications created by the Parrish / Southampton Art Museum.  The Parrish Art Museum Library was disbanded in 2011 and its books were donated to the Pollock-Krasner Study Center as part of the reference collection.  The Study Center continues to collect materials about current and past Parrish Art Museum exhibitions.

Rare Books

Books donated to the Pollock-Krasner Study Center that were found to contain signatures by the Artist or Author, numbered editions, materials in special bindings, fragile materials, or books containing numbered editions of art are kept separately from the reference collection.  Access to these materials is by appointment.

Reference Collection  

A browsing library of books located at the Stony Brook Southampton Library.  The collection chronicles the abstract expressionist movement, modern and contemporary art of the 20th century, and artists of Long Island’s east end (including the American impressionists of the 19th Century).  Many of the books here belonged to local artists and are the basis for Lee Krasner’s idea to create the Study Center.  None of these books may leave the library, but all are available for use when the library is open. 

Saarinen Book Collection 

Included with the books the Pollock-Krasner Study Center received from the Parrish Art Museum Library in 2011, were books that had belonged to the famed Finland architects Eliel Saarinen, his son Eero Saarinen and Eero’s wife Aline.  The books in this collection contain the signatures of the Saarinens and/or were authored by them.   The majority of Aline Saarinen's vast book collection is integrated into the Reference collection.  In addition to these books, the papers of Aline and Eero Saarinen were donated to the Archives of American Art, at the Smithsonian Institution.  

Study Center Collections

This is a collection of books specifically about Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner and their life together.  Where the Study Center owns 2 copies of such a book, the second copy is available for browsing in the reference collection. Otherwise, these books are in the Study Center office and are available for use by appointment only.  A listing of the materials can be found here for Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner.

Vertical File Collection

The Pollock-Krasner Study Center maintains a file of newspaper and journal article clippings, exhibit catalogs and other ephemera for Abstract Expressionism, Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, and their house and studio.  

Pollock-Krasner House Inspiration Collection

Published works which credit or use the P-K House as its inspiration including the 2000 motion picture: Pollock.  Also included are other materials such as plays, articles, etc.  

Pollock-Krasner Center Publications 

Since the Pollock Krasner Center’s founding in 1988, the Study Center maintains a file of ephemera relative to its history, including individual exhibition files (chronological) and other publications.

Pollock-Krasner Center Recorded Education Programs  

The collection includes audio (and some video) recordings of lectures presented since 1988, as well as some lectures, panel discussions and symposia related to abstract expressionism and the New York School presented by other organizations. See attached list of P-K House lectures.

Recordings through 2006 are on cassette tapes, not digitized; subsequent recordings are digital.