Lee Krasner by Gail Levin

suspended them on December 7, 1929,for “painting figures without permission.” It took the signature of “CCC”—their teacher Charles Courtney Curran—to restore their student status after the suspension. In an interview with Eda Mirsky when she was ninety-nine years old, the artist beamed at the thought of her youthful act of defiance with Krasner. She insisted that it was the only time she got in trouble. 63 Surprisingly, Krasner later interpreted the experience differently, saying, “I had absolutely no consciousness of being discriminated against until abstract expressionism came into blossom.” 64 This was one of her rare inconsistent moments, which may have sprung from her thinking in a different context.
    If Krasner’s rebellious attitude kept her from winning any prizes at the academy, it did not prevent Eda Mirsky’s recognition there—at least the small prizes that they allowed for women. As for Krasner, by her second term in 1929, she was made a “monitor,” which helped to pay for her materials and other expenses. According to Slobodkina, monitors were usually chosen by the students in a class. 65 But a teacher, if displeased, could surely replace the monitor.
    Despite Krasner’s problems with the academy, her fellow students seem to have recognized in Krasner the qualities of common sense, leadership, and a practical nature, since they made her secretary of the Students’ Association even before she got into trouble. Careful minutes for November 11, 1929, remain on file: $327 profit, school dance; $227 taken out for “student’s show,” as well as $120, loaned to the students’ supply store, leaving an active balance of $20.
    Krasner continued to study during both day and night classes with Olinsky. As the academy required, he conducted separate life classes for men and women. Krasner’s classmate Ilya Bolotowsky also liked Olinsky. He remarked years later that he thought that the National Academy: “was a very bad school…. The teachers were extremely academic, although Olinsky was not; he was sort of a modernist. I was considered a rebel and a bad examplebecause I was experimenting in color, rather modest experiments but for the Academy it was wild. We were warned not to follow people like Picasso, Cézanne…because Picasso never learned how to draw and Cézanne never learned how to paint, and other advice of this nature.” 66
    The faculty that Bolotowsky described is also the one that continued to esteem Igor Pantuhoff, who also studied with both Neilson and Olinsky. They awarded him the Mooney Traveling Scholarship in spring 1930, enabling him to travel to study the old masters in Europe. The award meant a temporary separation for Pantuhoff and Krasner, who were already viewed as a couple according to May Tabak Rosenberg. 67 With Pantuhoff gone, Krasner could focus on advancing her own career, which he encouraged. 68
    According to the 1930 federal census, even though Krasner was registered as “Lenore” at the academy, she gave her name to the census taker as “Lee,” having already adopted this nickname permanently during Cooper Union days; on April 11, she gave her age as twenty-one, which was correct, because she would not have her birthday until October. She had not yet begun her habit of lying about her age. She continued to include a second s in Krassner.
    Though Krasner continued to serve as the monitor of the night class, she was not among the winners of bronze medals or honorable mentions that went to four of the female students in “Drawing from Life—Figure.” In November 1930, Krasner was again taking Life in Full, continuing under Curran by day and Olinsky by night. Her work as the monitor for the night class suggests that she got along well with Olinsky. That year Krasner also attended lectures in art history, and lithography and took Chemistry of Color. In the spring