Lee Krasner by Gail Levin Read Free Book Online Page A

from the singing books and that only Bible readings would be required as “the religious part of the assembly exercises.” 18
    With Irving’s help, Lenore was also reading the German philosophers Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche, which influenced her to turn away from Jewish tradition and belief. Both Nietzsche’s dictum that “God is dead” and his insistence that humanity “take responsibility for setting its own moral standards” strongly affected her. Schopenhauer too influenced Lenore to leave behind religion: “The power of religious dogma, when inculcated early, is such as to stifle conscience, compassion, and finally every feeling of humanity.” 19
    Lenore was miffed by Orthodox Judaism’s inequitable beliefs about men and women, especially with regards to how women were excluded from significant religious involvement. “The beginnings were there in the synagogue, and I am told to go upstairs, I have never swallowed it to date,” she insisted late in life. She was not alone in her disapproval. Rebekah Kohut, a Hungarian immigrant of Lenore’s father’s generation, married a rabbi and then became an activist, campaigning for Jewish women’s right to fully participate in their religion. Kohut argued that “the denial of woman’s ability to serve the synagogue in every part of its work is cruel and dangerous.” 20 Though Kohut was in many ways successful in advancing Jewish women’s rights in the synagogue, these successes came too late to prevent Lenore from becoming estranged from Jewish religious practice.
    Krasner recalled arriving home one Shabbat (Sabbath) while her parents calmly entertained a friend over a cup of tea; she described herself as a young teenager coming in “like a charging banshee” and announcing that she was done with religion. 21 And that was that. She remained identified as Jewish but rejected all organized religion to lead a secular life, though gradually she would replace religious worship with devotion to art.
    She recalled her changes of direction as abrupt: “I decided to be a lawyer and entered a high school in Brooklyn called Girls’ High, I believe it was, flunked everything in the first six months I was there, and reapplied once more to Washington Irving. This time I was admitted and so I started my art career.” 22 Either they keptKrasner on a waiting list or had some students drop out, making room for her even though she lived in Brooklyn.
    Washington Irving High School was just where Lenore wanted to be. Even its seven-story building on Irving Place suggested its special purpose. Completed in 1913, it was designed by C. B. J. Snyder in brick, limestone, and terra-cotta with an imposing arched entrance and paired round-arched Florentine Renaissance windows on the top. A deep cornice and a tiled hip roof completed the artful ensemble, echoed inside by elaborate interior mural decorations. 23 The school originated in 1902 as a branch of Wadleigh High School (at the time, the only girls’ high school in Manhattan) called Girls’ Technical High School. It was the concept of the progressive educator William McAndrew who sought to mingle girls training for vocational or technical trades with those pursuing an academic curriculum, figuring that they would learn from one another.
    Washington Irving advertised a wide curriculum for women: drawing, illustrating, embroidery, picture hanging, printing, photography, costume designing, plain sewing, garment making, dancing, gardening, cooking, entertaining, sanitation, housekeeping, nursing, marketing, infant care, laundering, telephoning, typewriting, bookkeeping, stenography, salesmanship, office management, bookbinding, cataloguing, commercial filing, and newspaper writing, besides the usual high school subjects. Rather than promoting art for art’s sake, the curriculum aimed at enabling its graduates to find work, including