Ben Bianchi, Untitled (Beach Day), 1985

Ben Bianchi 1934-1996

Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 24 1/8 x 20 inches (61.3 x 50.8 cm)

Dated 8.8.85 (lr); signed Ben Bianchi and inscribed for Winston and Carole on the overlap

Ben Bianchi was a former student of Lee Krasner's nephew, Ronald Stein, at the art school of the Worcester Art Museum. He first met Krasner in the early 1960s, when he came to Springs as Stein's guest; Stein and his wife lived next door to Krasner. According to a 1993 interview with Bianchi, he became friendly with her, and often visited her in East Hampton and New York City. When visiting her in Springs, he stayed in the former studio in the house, which Krasner had converted as a guest room. He occasionally sized canvases for her, using the same Rivit glue that Pollock preferred.

For two summers, 1965 and 1966, Bianchi rented the Parsons blacksmith shop, which then stood diagonally across from the Pollock-Krasner House. He lived and worked in the building, and paid his rent by painting his landlord's house next door.

Bianchi exhibited new collages at the Pollock Krasner House in 1996: https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/30/nyregion/art-collages-in-color-and-black-and-white.html