Getty Research Journal, No. 9, Supplement 1: Examining Pollock: Essays Inspired by the Mural Research Project

This special issue of the Getty Research Journal comprises the most in-depth interdisciplinary look at Jackson Pollock’s work to date. The result of a five-year research project, the volume is centered around Pollock’s most important early painting, Mural (1943), the work that convinced the critic Clement Greenberg that Pollock was the key painter of his generation. Ten contributions by leading art historians, conservators, curators, and conservation scientists explore issues ranging from Pollock’s inspiration from Surrealism and action photography to his relationship to architecture and regionalism. In particular, this collaborative study asked what the new tools of technical analysis and advanced imaging can do for art history, not just to answer factual questions but to guide interpretation. The cross-disciplinary investigation has resulted in significant further developments in our understanding of how Pollock was working, how his paintings were made, and how they changed over time. Overall, the issue provides alternative perspectives to the narratives that have dominated the critical and art historical literature on Pollock over the last seventy years.