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PETER KRASNOW
1887-1979

Peter Krasnow moved to the United States in 1908 and began his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. His initial paintings reflected European traditions, dark in color and nostalgic in content. In 1919, he and his Rose moved to New York and was encouraged by artistic success.  In 1922/23, the Krasnows moved to Los Angeles and where he immediately found himself in Stanton Macdonald Wright’s ‘Group of Independent Artists’.  His palette, his imagery and his style changed to reflect the light and landscape of California.  Through portraiture, also, he received acclaim...and commissions.  Receiving a Guggenheim grant in 1930, the Krasnows sojourned in France from 1931-1934.

Returning to the California in 1935, Krasnow felled trees in his backyard to create a kitchen garden for his wife. He carved those walnut, cypress, avocado and citrus treetrunks and limbs into remarkable sculptures resembling tribal art forms and totem poles that he termed ‘demountables’.  By the 1940s, Krasnow reintroduced painting in his activities.  Again, he made a dramatic change in his imagery, which became more abstract and architectonic in a high key California palette .  However, by the 1950s, recalling his Jewish heritage, he subtly employed biblical themes and iconography in his abstractions.
 
 

Click on individual images for more information

Peter Krasnow Chronology

Exhibitions at Tobey C. Moss Gallery:

2007	Peter Krasnow and Rico Lebrun: Two Icons of California Modernism
1993	Peter Krasnow: TreeForms and CityScapes
1991	Peter Krasnow: An Evolving Vision
1989	Peter Krasnow: California Modernist

For more images and biographical data, email: tobeymoss@earthlink.net