Lee Krasner by Gail Levin Page B

foreign-born (and Jewish) Max Weber for taking “no account of the American tradition” in his painting and for being tied to “European standards.” Watson denounced “American laymen,” for whom “the modernity of all art depends upon the degree of success with which it emulates painting in Paris.” 75 At the same time, he defended Edward Hopper, John Sloan, Charles Burchfield, and Rockwell Kent against those who perceived “a disturbing conservative quality” in their work.
    On a wave of cultural nationalism, the Whitney Museum ofAmerican Art was founded in 1930 and opened on Eighth Street in 1931. It would feature what some saw as a more parochial choice of American artists than the Museum of Modern Art. The Whitney was aware of its problem, but it was not always sensitive to the identity issues it raised. One of the museum’s earliest publications, a monograph on Edward Hopper by Guy Pène du Bois, described Hopper as “the most inherently Anglo-Saxon painter of all times.” This was actually a distortion of Hopper’s ancestry, which was half Dutch and part French. 76
    Krasner must have known that the artist Thomas Hart Benton and the critic Thomas Craven were not alone in denouncing immigrants, ethnics, leftists, and Jews, claiming that they were incapable of painting the “true American” experience. 77 To many eyes, the Jews were not the same race as Anglo-Saxons; they were not technically “white.” They were still not allowed to join exclusive clubs, stay in restricted hotels, attend all schools, or live in certain areas. In her relationship with Pantuhoff, however, Krasner clearly hoped to transcend this inferior status.
    Around this time the Depression was beginning to hit hard. This was the overwhelming issue that led Krasner’s classmate Vogel to join the Unemployed Artists Group in the summer of 1933. Some of Vogel’s fellow members, who already belonged to Krasner’s circle of politically radical friends or would soon, were Balcomb Greene and his wife, Gertrude “Peter” Glass Greene, as well as Ibram Lassaw (all of whom would remain lifelong friends); Boris Gorelick, Michael Loew, and Max Spivak, with whom Krasner would work on the WPA and in the Artists Union. This group of activists was formed within the John Reed Club, which was the main institutional base for Communist and fellow-traveling artists before 1935. 78
    Unemployment became an even more significant issue when landlords began to throw these workers and their families onto the street. On February 4, 1932, more than 3,500 unemployed workers braved cold rain to gather at Union Square and march inprotest to City Hall. A group of Communist organizers told the board of alderman (city council): “Unless the city finds some way to prevent further evictions of the families of the unemployed, the Unemployed Councils of New York will use force to ‘fight off the hired thugs of the landlords.’ There are more than one million workers unemployed in New York City. The city is doing nothing to help them.” 79
    A month later, on March 6, 1932, a large group of artists gathered in Union Square. They called themselves the Unemployment Council and, for the first time, called attention to unemployment and poverty among artists. Their efforts led to the founding of the Artists Union. Krasner’s fellow student Boris Gorelick recalled: “It was not one of the first organizations, but it was the first amongst the cultural workers and subsequently played a very leading and very important role in, for one thing, bringing about recognition of the responsibility of government to the artist per se and also the need for unity amongst the artists for their own survival.” 80
    Krasner had always suffered from her family’s poverty, but at this time the harsh economy even impinged upon her ability to earn her own way through part-time jobs. Affected by the