Jackson Pollock

Is Jackson Pollock the greatest living painter in the United States? Life magazine asked in 1949. Pollock's large, bold canvases revolutionized the world of art; more than 100 are reproduced here in full color to capture the brilliance of his palette, and six gatefolds show his vast horizontal works without distortion.

The role of art historian as biographer is beset with contradictions, an artist's life and art being neither mutually exclusive nor synonymous. Balanced in his life on the edge of destruction and in his art on that of innovation, Pollock mirrored a chaotic world, one in which humans seemed to have lost control. Less gossipy than Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith's Jackson Pollock ( LJ 8/89), this book treats Pollock's personal life, creative work, and cultural milieu as discrete elements that produce a gradually developing image, not always in accord with the public's view of Pollock as rebellious cowboy or counterculture loner. Pollock was the major force behind the transfer of avant-garde art from France to the United States and the American idiom in which it was expressed. This "American Prometheus" is well served by this elegantly illustrated, carefully annotated, and well-written work. Recommended for all art libraries and large general collections.
- Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.