Lena Krasner in Brooklyn, New York to Russian Jewish immigrant parents from Bessarabia. Starting in 1937, she took classes with Hans Hofmann, who taught the principles of cubism, and his influence helped to direct Krasner's work toward neo-cubist abstraction. In 1940, she started showing her works with the American Abstract Artists, a group of American painters. Krasner would often cut apart her own drawings and paintings to create collages and, at times, revised or discarded an entire series. As a result, her surviving body of work is relatively small. Her catalogue raison- né, published in 1995 by Abrams, lists only 599 known pieces. She was rigorously self-critical, and her critical eye is believed to have been important to Pollock's work. Krasner struggled with the public's reception of her iden- tity, both as a woman and as the wife of Pollock. Therefore she often signed her works with the genderless initials"L.K". instead of her more recognizable full name. Krasner and Pollock gave each other reassurance and support during a period when neither's work was well-appreciated. Like Picasso during the brief period of his interaction with Braque, the daily give-and-take of Pollock and Krasner stimulated both artists. Pollock and Krasner fought a battle for legitimacy, impulsiveness and individual expression. They opposed an old-fashioned, conformist, and repressed culture unre- ceptive to these values, which was put off by the intricacy of Modernism in general.