Jackson Pollock: A Biography

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Thomas Hart Benton, famous for his folksy murals, seems an unlikely mentor for an abstract expressionist, yet this engrossing, level-headed biography provides a wonderful glimpse of the shy, rangy Pollock under the tutelage of the tobacco-chewing Missourian in the 1930s. Pollock, we also learn, was ambivalent about his abstract style, at which he arrived after a 16-year search for a vehicle that would accommodate his violent emotions. Solomon, whose first book this is, has unearthed revealing new material: Robert Motherwell's introduction of Pollock to the surrealists in New York in the '40s; Pollock's first exposure to splatter painting in Mexican muralist David Siqueiros's workshop; his encounter with Jungian therapy and experiments with homeopathy. The author analyzes Lee Krasner, Pollock's long-suffering wife, as an important painter in her own rightcontradicting those biographers who maintain that she sacrificed herself to her husband's career. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

American painter Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) has been the subject of several biographies. Unlike Elizabeth Frank's Jackson Pollock ( LJ 2/1/84) or B. H. Friedman's Jackson Pollock (1972), it is intended for the general reader with an interest in art; yet it has greater coherence than Jeffrey Potter's To a Violent Grave ( LJ 12/l/85). Pollack's life among New York's avant-garde, highly publicized creations, and violent death are part of modern art lore and legend. Along with the artistic struggle to find the style that was his, Pollock's problems included alcoholism and mental breakdowns. A concisely written biography; the footnotes indicate solid research. Unfortunately there are no color plates (black-and-white photos not seen). Hara L. Seltzer, NYPL
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.