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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 response to the horrors of the Holocaust, he sought an artform of flat, geometric purity, an embodiment of universal truths. In 1919, he moved to Manhattan, New York and met with artistic success by 1922. Shortly afterwards, Krasnow moved to Los Angeles and immediately found himself in Stanton Macdonald Wright's group of independent artists where he quickly became a leading California modernist.
 

After a three year journey in France from 1931-1934, Krasnow settled into wood sculptures which resemble tribal art forms; totem poles and ancestral figures of power which he termed 'demountables'. He worked with various wood types of in search of a pure harmonization of form, weight and meaning. His sculptural talents led to the commission of several synagogue alter pieces as well as a major piece for the University of Southern California. By the 1940s, Krasnow returned to painting, his creative focus on the California landscape and modern cubic architecture. Drawing from his Jewish heritage, in later years he turned towards a more spiritual form in his continued search for life sources and a clear sense of order.
 

PETER KRASNOW

Selected One-Person Exhibitions
 

1922             Whitney Studio Club, New York - Los Angeles County Museum of Art
1923             MacDowell Club, Los Angeles
1928             Oakland Municipal Art Gallery - Seattle Society of Fine Arts
                     Dalzell Hatfield Gallery, Los Angeles - Zeitlin Book Store, Los Angeles
1929             Scripps College, Claremont, California
1930             Stendahl Art Galleries, Los Angeles
1931             California Palace of Legion of Honor, San Francisco
1934             Galerie Pierre, Paris
1935             U.C.L.A.,The Print Rooms, Los Angeles
1939             Fine Arts Gallery, San Diego
1940             Stendahl Art Galleries, Los Angeles - U.C.L.A.
1954             Pasadena Art Institute
1964             Scripps College, Claremont, California
1975             L.A. Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Park
1977             Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley, California
1978             Skirball Museum, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles
1986-93        Tobey C. Moss Gallery, Los Angeles
1994              Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Logan, Utah
 

Selected Group Exhibitions

1922            6th Annual Exhibition:Society of Independent Artists, The Waldorf Astoria, New York
1923            Group of Independent Artists, Taos Building, Los Angeles
1925            Whitney Studio Club Annual, New York
1926            Whitney Studio Club Annual, New York
1927            49th Annual Exhibition: San Francisco Art Association, Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco
1935            16th Annual Painters and Sculptors Exhibition, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
1950             Los Angeles County Museum of Art
1955            III Bienal, Museu de Art Moderna, Sao Paulo, Brazil
1965            Art Now: Los Angeles Art Association Gallery
1974            Nine Senior Southern California Painters, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art
1976            Painting and Sculpture in California: The Modern Era, San Francisco Museum/Modern Art
1977            Whitney Museum, New York National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.
1981            Los Angeles 1920s-1960s - Tobey C. Moss Gallery
1984            Between The Olympics - Los Angeles 1932-1984, Tobey C. Moss Gallery
1985            California 1920-1945 - Tobey C. Moss Gallery
1986            Aspects of California Modernism, Federal Reserve System, Washington, DC
1989            Forty Years of California Assemblage - U.C.L.A., San Jose Museum of Art, Fresno Art Museum,
                     Joslyn Art Museum/Omaha
1989-90      Blueprints for Modern Living - Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
1990-92      Turning the Tide - U.C. Santa Barbara, Oakland Art Museum,Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art/Utah,
                     Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum/Texas, Laguna Art Museum,Palm Springs Desert Museum of Art
 

Selected Public Collections

Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona
University of Arizona Art Museum, Tucson, Arizona
DeSaisset Museum, Santa Clara, California
Galka E. Scheyer Collection-Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California
Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley, California
Laguna Art Museum, California
Long Beach Museum of Art, California
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California
Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art, California
Oakland Art Museum, California
Palm Springs Desert Museum of Art, California
Pasadena Art Museum, California
Skirball Museum, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles, California
San Jose Museum of Art, California
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California
University Art Museum, Berkeley, California
Spertus Museum, Chicago, Illinois
Herzliya Museum of Art, Israel
Sheldon Memorial Art Galleries, University of Nebraska
The Jewish Museum, New York, New York
Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Logan, Utah
National Museum of American Art, Washington,D.C.
University of Judaism, Los Angeles

1887             Born in the Ukraine
1907             Emigrated to United States, initially living in Boston
1908             Moved to Chicago; enrolled at Art Institute while working on security staff
1915             Graduated from the Art Institute; married 'his' Rose Bloom
1919             Moved to New York
1922             Drove across country to California
1923             Built redwood cabin/studio near Glendale, on a lot bought from friend Edward Weston
1923             Exhibited with `The Group of Independent Artists' of MacDowell Club, Los Angeles
                     with Stanton Macdonald Wright, Boris Deutsch, Nick Brigante, Ben Berlin, etc.
1920s           Accepted commissions for paintings and carvings from Temple Emmanu-El,
                    San Francisco; Sinai Temple, Los Angeles; University of Southern California,
                    Bullock's Wilshire, private collectors and architects
1927/28        Created series of lithographs
1931             Received grant, Peter and Rose went to the Dordogne region in France
1932/34        Exchanged letters with Edward Weston concerning political conditions in United States and Europe
1934            After Galerie Pierre exhibit in Paris, sailed for the United States and California
1935/40        Focus upon carved wood sculptures
1944             Returns to the easel with new techniques of the geometric/narrative
1977             Receives fellowship from National Endowment for the Arts
1979             Dies in Los Angeles