MOMA: Jackson Pollock: A Collection Survey

I went last week to MOMA to see the current show, Jackson Pollock: A Collection Survey, 1934-1954, an extensive exhibit that takes up several galleries and contains both paintings and graphic works from all periods of the artist's abbreviated career.  As the museum's website states:

"Exceedingly rare and little-known engravings, lithographs, screenprints, and drawings are also included, highlighting an underappreciated side of one of the most important and influential American artists of the 20th century. By bringing together works made using a range of materials and techniques—both traditional and unorthodox—the exhibition underscores the relentless experimentation and emphasis on process that was at the heart of Pollock’s creativity."

I first became interested in Pollock after having read the exhaustive biography Jackson Pollock: An American Saga by Steven W. Naifeh and Gregory White Smith.  As in their later biography of Van Gogh, the authors focused on the manner by which an individual so dysfunctional that he was barely able to cope with everyday life could manage in the end to transcend his personal afflictions (acute alcoholism in Pollock's case) and become one of the most influential and highly regarded artists of his time.  When I had finished the book I went to the Met Museum to view those Pollock works that were on display.  My reaction was mixed.  Though I was deeply impressed by the large drip paintings, I had difficulty appreciating the few earlier works shown and was unable relate them to the the artist's final masterpieces.

In contrast, I found the carefully curated exhibit at MOMA to be extremely helpful in demonstrating the continuity in Pollock's work and the influences of other artists upon it.  For example, the oil on canvas Flame completed in the 1930's not only reveals the artist's move away from figurative representation (he had been a student of Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League) to abstraction even at that early date but also shows the impact the Mexican mural painter José Clemente Orozco had upon him. In a like manner, the painting Circle (1938-1941) reveals that Pollock had not only absorbed the lessons of Orozco's murals but had also been exposed to the mythical underpinnings of Carl Jung's psychoanalytic theory.  There are also on view selections from the group of eleven engravings Pollock created between 1941 and 1945 while working with Stanley William Hayter, the British printmaker who had relocated to New York during World War II.  These convincingly demonstrate Pollock's talent as a graphic artist.

Of course, the major attraction at the exhibit are the drip paintings that Pollock completed in the late 1940's and early 1950's.  On display are many of his masterpieces, most of which I had never before seen, such as White Light (1954), Shimmering Substances (1946), and my personal favorite Full Fathom Five (1947).  Then there are the oversized canvases - Number 1A, 1948 and One: Number 31, 1950 - on which Pollock had worked while they were spread out on the floor beneath him and to which he assigned numbers rather than titles.  These works, which represent the culmination of Pollock's career as an artist, must be seen to be fully appreciated as representations can only provide vague intimations of their sweep and complexity. 

The exhibit, a "must see" for anyone with the slightest interest in twentieth century American art, continues through May 1, 2016.