Jackson Pollock

Amazon.com

The almost mythic Jackson Pollock--a roughshod, ill-mannered, prodigiously ambitious, aggressive, alcoholic, tormented artist--is alive and unwell in this book. But Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel, the chief curator and adjunct assistant curator, respectively, of the Museum of Modern Art's Department of Painting and Sculpture, also go deeply into Pollock's art in eye-opening ways. This book is the catalog for the retrospective of Pollock's art-shattering oeuvre at the Museum of Modern Art in the fall of 1998 and includes many biographical pictures as well as color plates of Pollock's paintings, from the awkward but earnest early works to the late, great, famous canvasses. Varnedoe's essay, aptly titled "Comet: Jackson Pollock's Life and Work," deftly invites the reader into Pollock's world, starting with his country studio: "The structure, often called a barn, is in fact more like a glorified tool shed." Karmel's essay, "Pollock at Work: The Films and Photographs of Hans Namuth," is a truly groundbreaking exploration of Pollock's technique. Karmel has scrutinized every frame of every piece of film, still or moving, ever taken of Pollock painting. He arrives at absolutely original conclusions: Pollock's all-over swirls of dripped and flung paint often began as figurative works and clearly relate to such all-American stalwarts as Thomas Hart Benton. Karmel makes countless other sharp observations, noting the difference, for example, between fast-looking marks and the slow, deliberate movements with which they were made (and vice versa). His essay is a work of brilliant scholarship, written thrillingly, and it will forever change the way any serious viewer looks at Pollock's paintings. It makes this volume absolutely essential for understanding the work of this great, sad artist. --Peggy Moorman

Book Description

Jackson Pollock is widely considered the most challenging and influential American artist of the 20th century. In his revolutionary paintings of the late 1940s, he dripped paint into complex webs of interlacing lines, rhythmically punctuated by pools of color. With their allover composition, apparent abstraction, and spontaneous but controlled paint handling, these powerful works announced the emergence of Abstract Expressionism. This sumptuously illustrated book offers a fresh overview of his achievement, reinterpreted for a new generation and features a complete visual record of the artist's work, including over 200 color reproductions of paintings, drawings, and prints, enhanced by life-sized details, foldouts, and documentary photographs. An essay by Kirk Varnedoe explores Pollock's life, the mythology that so quickly grew up around him as the prototypical "action painter", and the different critical schools that have tried to lay claim to his legacy. Pepe Karmel offers new insight into Pollock's famous "drip" technique, as revealed by an intensive, computer-assisted study of photographs and films of Pollock at work. This volume was published to accompany the first major survey of the artist's career since 1967, held in 1998 at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Customer Reviews:

Pollock, only Pollock, nothing else but Pollock.......2007-04-16

This is the catalogue for the landmark Pollock exhibition held at the Moma and the Tate in 1998-1999. Considering the steep rise in the insurance value of Pollock's paintings, such a comprehensive retrospective is not likely to be repeated in the near future and we are therefore fortunate to have such a brilliant book to help us remember it. The late Kirk Varnedoe was one of the best interpreters of contemporary American art and his text, never anecdotical and always informative without being pedantic, does justice to the masterpieces without falling into any of the cliches that often pollute our view of this great artist.

Beautiful illustrations make this book an indispensable presence in any arts library.

THIS BOOK OFFERS GREAT INSIGHT INTO POLLOCK'S ARTISTIC MIND.......2004-03-12

________________________________________________________________________________________________

I purchased this book when it first came out and refer back to it often. A person could spend hours at a time pouring over the plates and fold-out pictures (pun intended). Not only does this particular book provide the best collection of absolutely superb quality Jackson Pollock reproductions that I'm aware of, but the narrative is extremely well written and essential to understanding many things regarding Pollock's thought process and artistic technique.

Pepe Karmel's chapter imparticular, in which he analyzes Hans Namuth's photographs, is nothing less than brilliant detective work. I found it fascinating to find that underlying the lacy layers of at least one of Pollock's drip paintings are figurative images which he made within a narrative context. Although the complete details of this "narrative" may never be fully known, Pepe speculates that Pollock may have been acting out the destruction of some of his inward demons by first physically acknowledging and creating them and then systematically covering them within the confines of the finished painting. I'll leave it to you to get the book and both read and see for yourself all of the findings which include the deciphering of some of the figures and their meanings. With this discovery, the creation of the painting involved (Number 27, 1950) becomes not only a very strenuous and at once both spontaneous and preplanned action - but a true "ritual." Was he destroying these figures or merely absorbing them into a larger and more complex environment? We'll probably never know all the details. I wonder if Pollock would have disclosed answers to these questions had he been confronted with them during his life? Perhaps this would have been too personal. But maybe he did confide the details of what he was doing to someone and another good researcher might come across a total revelation in a hidden diary someday. I'm sure this is just wishful thinking on my part, but how I love a good mystery!

simply the best.......2003-08-08

This breathtaking catalogue is simply the best single volume available on Jackson Pollock, and this is primarily--but not only--because of the number and quality of the reproductions it offers. Almost every one of the dozen or so Pollock books in my library contains a painting not available in the others, but this book collects and beautifully photographs the greatest number and variety of his canvases--outside of a catalogue raisonee.

As the other reviewers state, there are many generously-sized fold-out pages here, and the crispness and resolution of these big reprints and of the more modest pages are simply amazing. To take two essential examples, this book's reprints of "One: Number 31, 1950" and "Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952" are astoundingly clear, better than any of the many other versions I've seen in art books, even in Ellen Landau's large-format survey, a book which also includes gatefolds.

(Another reviewer, by the by, states that "Lucifer" is not available in any other book, which is not true. Among other places, it appears in Landau, in Elizabeth's Frank's concise volume, and as the sole color reproduction in the book for the 1965 MOMA retrospective. Anyway, it gets terrific treatment here.)

Another invaluable inclusion in this book is a great number of full-sized detail photos of the canvases. For example, on a page adjacent to "Lucifer" and "Autumn Rhythm" and "Full Fathom Five," we see another photo of just one small section of that same painting but in 1-to-1 scale; these details reveal much of the dynamic, kinetic, urgent quality of these works, their encrustations of sand, glass, pennies, paint caps--traits which even this book could otherwise never offer a livingroom Pollock-viewer.

Further, having seen the exhibit in January of 1999, I can attest to the generally excellent fidelity of the color-balance. (Curiously, no one seems to be able to capture "Autumn Rhythm"'s grey-teal passages in a book, but if you were at this show or have viewed the painting at the Met you've seen them.)

The accompanying articles are excellent. Kirk Varnedoe overviews of Pollock's life, artistic aims, his accomplishments, all illustrated with family and archival photographs and drawing on Pollock quotations. Pepe Karmel uses the extensive photographic and film record of Pollock painting to analyze Pollock's physical movements. Most wonderful are Karmel's computer reconstructions of early states of the painting "Autumn Rythm," based on Hans Namuth's photos of Pollock at work.

In sum, this book gives the finest, fullest offering of both Pollock's life and art.

Best Reproductions and Most Complete.......2001-05-31

I picked this book up at the MOMA Pollock retrospective a couple years ago and have used it extensively. Having seen many of the paintings in this book firsthand, I can say that these are some of the best reproductions offerred in book form on Pollock's work. Another plus is that several paintings are printed on fold-out pages, so that the work doesn't cross the book's seam. So many of his paintings are extremely wide that this makes a lot of sense (otherwise, there would be hardly any resolution in the height dimension).

If you're interested in Pollock and need to refer to the reproductions, I absolutely recommend this book above all others out there.

Pollock Without the Boring Mythologizing.......2000-06-05

Excellent companion piece to the MOMA show (which traveled to London's Tate) goes beyond all other Pollock explorations. A "must" for students of modern American art as well as those just wanting to get a better understanding of what Pollock was REALLY DOING.

Large format features fold-out reproductions of breathtakingly high quality. Among these, incredibly, are paintings not found in any other published sources. (The incomparable Lucifer (1947) is one such work).

The text is scholarly but readable, and although there is a considerable amount of it, each open page of writing offers at least a couple relevant and highly interesting photos or other illustrations. The many large color plates would certainly make a gorgeous and impressive coffee table book for anyone who doesn't choose to read it.

Kirk Varnedoe writes definitively about Pollock's mercurial life & career. Varnedoe's nearly 75 pages of biographical analysis are a welcome alternative to the kind of misguided mythologizing about Pollock that has for a long time colored the artist as an overrated art "star."

Pepe Karmel's contribution to this book is an amazing analysis of Pollock's painting process through an exhaustive examination of the famous films and photographs of Pollock at work. This was a fascinating, ground-breaking part of the exhibition, and is equally wonderful in the book.

Amazon.com

Jackson Pollock's paintings capture the essence of movement and challenge typical notions of representation. The Fate of a Gesture argues that Pollock's work overshadowed and directed the course of postwar American Painting. Not to be confused with a survey of this era in art history, Ratcliff deals specifically with the boundless and infinite quality of the influential gesture as a symbol of America itself. Avoiding a common aggrandizement of the artist, Ratcliff's thought-provoking text allows readers to draw conclusions of their own.

Customer Reviews:

Very insightful book.......2007-06-11

If you have any interest in Abstract Expressionism and New York school of painting, pick up this highly readable and well written book. The book traces the origins of American modern art to the expressive gestures of Jackson Pollack in his drip paintings. In some ways this gesture is replicated in the book, as chapters seem to jump/ merge from one subject or painter to another without reason, yet, in fact, is building up a glorious picture of the New York artists world at a particular point of time. Highly recommended.

Please..........2007-04-16

Give me a break. This mish-mash of secondhand information is little more than easily readable. With little regard to chronology, Ratcliff separates the various artistic trends of postwar America using representative artists. All of the stories in this book have been told before, and better, by the artists and critics themselves. This kind of 'art journalism' (not unlike Calvin Tomkins' work) is informative, to be sure, but in quite a superficial and unsatisfying way. I suggest reading Irving Sandler's 'American art of the 1960s' for something as informative and enjoyable but with some opinions and insight.

Follows post-world war two american art after Jackson Polloc.......2001-03-14

Jackson Pollock is seen as the greatest American artist ever, because of his poured paintings of the late 40's and early 50's. Dying in a drunken car crash in 1956, he left behind a legacy of American artists who weren't driven by European art tastes. The Abstract Expressionist movement, large canvases, and Pop Art are all traced back to Pollock.

Book Description

Pollock's large, bold canvases revolutionized the world of art; more than100 are reproduced here in full color to capture the brilliance of his palette, and six gatefolds show his vast horizontal works without distortion.

270 illustrations, 120 in full color, 6 gatefolds, 11 3/4 x 10"

Customer Reviews:

"Jack The Dripper" Enchants and Excites the Art World.......2007-01-10

This beautiful book with an anthology of Pollock's work; along with the details of his life, was very engrossing. I was unfamiliar with his work; although I do collect some artwork. When I saw and read the book from the coffee table of a friend's home over the holidays; I couldn't wait to order from Amazon.com for my copy. A recent find of Pollock's work was shown on David Letterman. It sold for millions after being locked away in a closet for many years. Beautiful book for a fantastic artist.

strong text, inconsistent reproduction quality.......2003-08-08

Before Varnedoe and Karmel's Pollock monograph, which accompanied the MOMA / Tate retrospective a few yeas ago, this was the best available text-and-plates book about Pollock. In terms of its text, this book is still relevant and insightful. Like Elizabeth Frank, Landau does a lot of truly eye-opening comparison work throughout her book. She'll reprint a work by Picasso, say, or a Native American artifact, or a Pollock sketch, and then analyze the influence it exerted on one of Pollock's key canvases.

And unlike the Varnedoe/Karmel book, this volume reprints these several kinds of works in close proximity, often on the same or a facing page, a useful feature. Landau's remarks about Pollock's sources, outcomes, growth and directions are always at least provocative and often really instructive, particularly in her coverage of the late black paintings. Indeed, Landau's analysis is regularly listed and praised in other authors' bibliographies.

The drawbacks of the book are its numerous poor reproductions, and plates after all make the primary reason for buying an artist monograph. Many of the plates are excellent and crisp--"Lucifer," "Pasiphae," "Autumn Rhythm," the colorful, playful works following Pollock's marriage. But too many of the plates and fold-outs are muddy, and Pollock's use of silver or aluminum paint is simply beyond this book's ability--as with the gaudy and over-exposed looking gatefold that opens the book. "Blue Poles" and "Stenographic Figure" are among the book's other poor reprints. Until I saw the Varnedoe/Karmel reprint of "One: Number 31, 1950," and then again in "person" at the MOMA, I just flatly didn't understand how Pollock had approached it. It looks "ok" in Landau, but with a lessened resolution that just slightly confuses the webbing throughout.

Still, I value the book and particularly its text. As for the reproduction quality, I did buy a second copy to cannibalize it; I've posted many laminated pages throughout my classroom. But I got that copy at remaindered prices. At full cost, this is a 3 1/2 or 4 star book. At bargain prices, the book rates 4 or 4 1/2 stars. Varnedoe/Karmel is just visually superior.

A gorgeous retrospective of a brilliant body of work.......2001-05-19

This intelligent and lavishly illustrated volume, which first appeared in a 1989 hardcover edition, covers Pollock's entire career, his early influences, and the progression of the themes, techniques, and accomplishments of his life as an artist. Ellen Landau's text is enlightening, but the best part of this book is, inevitably, the illustrations themselves, which are an unparalleled feast for the eyes. For those who want to experience and understand Pollock's art (rather than dwell on his personal problems) this is an excellent choice.

Average customer rating:

should have been better
Don't waste your money!
DRAWING from the MODERN

Drawing From The Modern
Agnes Martin , Gary Garrels , Carl Andre , Willem de Kooning , Eva Hesse , Jasper Johns , Ellsworth Kelly , Sol Lewitt , Roy Lichtenstein , Brice Marden , Barnett Newman , Claes Oldenburg , Jackson Pollock , Robert Rauschenberg , Richard Serra , Cy Twombly , and Dan Flavin
Manufacturer: The Museum of Modern Art, New York
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0870706640
Release Date: 2005-03-15

Book Description

Visual art in the period following World War II witnessed landmark transformations. Today, drawing provides a powerful and vigorous device for reexamining the art of that period, and for renewing appreciation of the extraordinary achievements of well-known artists--and for discovering others. Even though the art of these years saw radical departures and shifts, drawing, which is among the most traditional of media, played a crucial and consistent role in the work of a great majority of the most significant artists. Drawing from the Modern, 1945-1975, surveys the drawing of the period through the unparalleled holdings of the drawings collection of The Museum of Modern Art. The postwar period saw the development of Abstract Expressionism in New York, followed by Pop art, Minimal art, and Conceptual art, and the Museum's collection has exceptional strength in these areas. Abstract drawings by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Barnett Newman open this volume, followed by works by such key figures as Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, and Cy Twombly. Next, drawings by Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, and Andy Warhol signal the arrival of a new figurative art at the forefront of creativity. But reductive and abstract art kept pace, and the Museum's collection offers a breathtaking array of drawings by Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Eva Hesse, Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Richard Serra, and numerous others. What constitutes "progress" in art is questioned today, and it is no longer possible to see the development of art as a straight line, with synchronicity among places and geographies. But drawing, by its very nature, encourages established understandings to be examined and accepted values to be reappraised. Many of the artists represented here defy easy categorization, including Lee Bontecou, Louise Bourgeois, Vija Celmins, Bruce Conner, Ray Johnson, Jim Nutt, and Myron Stout. The resurgence of European art is represented by drawings by Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Marcel Broodthaers, Piero Manzoni, Henri Michaux, Mario Merz, and Sigmar Polke, among others. A number the most important artists working in Latin America in the postwar period are also represented, including Jorge de la Vega, Gego, LeAn Ferrari, Halio Oiticica, and Mira Schendel. While neither the collection nor this volume is encyclopedic, the spirit and achievements of postwar art are distilled and amply celebrated here.

Customer Reviews:

should have been better.......2007-09-13

I purchased book 1 & 2 from Amazon. The illustrations are far too small to be a professionally represented art book from MOMA I've decided to save my money rather than pay out for the 3rd edition. It sounds a good buy from its description but I don't consider this trilogy to be very satisfactory.

Don't waste your money!.......2007-08-09

This is not a good artbook. The images are way too small to be satisfying. This book could have been great, but falls way short of its potential. Don't buy it, you will be disappointed.

DRAWING from the MODERN.......2006-12-27

DRAWING from the MODERN is the first of a three part series published by MOMA as catalogue to accompany the chronologically arranged exhibitions of their drawing collection; in part, celebration of the seventy fifth anniversary of the founding of the Museum.

This first book looks at the late nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. Care and preservation of these drawings dictate that they are displayed infrequently, paper being a delicate medium, subject to fading, discoloration and brittleness. The publication of this series then allows us to have at hand a history of drawings seldom seen, and a visual education demonstrating how problems of that era both evolved and worked themselves out.

The introduction by Jodi Hauptman is broad and well worth reading. Aside from her entertaining "end of art" stories, she addresses artists and process leading to the dissolution of prevalent notions: relationship of "mark" to "ground", took new form; spatial notions of an orderly page, questioned; the element of chance, explored as process; the ego relationship of an artist to work, dissolving. New imagery happened: collage, abstraction, grids, enhanced emotions, metaphors of feeling, the sublime re-imaged. New subjects explored brutalities of war, notions of "city", identity, the spiritual, and the abstract.

As perhaps with all process of art, the uncertainty of change brought forth much that is new. The 139 plates of drawings both demonstrate and give testimony by leading artists of the time to new era in process. Drawing as subject matter is fascinating. To be expected, the book is well printed. Of course, what is book one without book two and three?

Nancy Gutrich

Average customer rating:

Connections
still reading it
Good review of Jackson Pollock's work, but not personal enou

Jackson Pollock: Energy Made Visible
B. H. Friedman
Manufacturer: Da Capo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0306806649

Customer Reviews:

Connections.......2007-01-11

I was wowed reading this energetic, straightforward book, mainly by the many connections made--how Pollocks studies with the great Mexican muralist Orosco who used used/taught a dripping splashing underpainting technique can logically link to how Pollock got splashing and painting on large scale canvases---to the influence of other artists, such as Picasso, on the early works of Jackson Pollock, to the revelation of Pollock's love of and use of found natural forms...

still reading it.......2006-08-07

I am just beginning to explore pollacks work - book is well laid out

Good review of Jackson Pollock's work, but not personal enou.......1999-07-12

This book is a thorough review of Jackson Pollock's work and his professional life; however I would have enjoyed it more if there had been more indepth reporting of his personal life. HIs relationship with his wife, parents and brothers would have made for a more insightful view of the artist as a man.

Jackson Pollock (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)

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Great for teachers!
Mike Venezia has lots of fun teaching young kids about the art of Jackson Pollock
Pollock for kids.

Jackson Pollock (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)
Mike Venezia
Manufacturer: Children's Press (CT)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0516422987

Customer Reviews:

Great for teachers!.......2007-04-20

Informative book about the late author for elementary school level children. Also a great artist to study and try to replicate. My students have a blast learning about Jackson Pollock then creating their own splattered masterpiece!

Mike Venezia has lots of fun teaching young kids about the art of Jackson Pollock.......2006-05-01

Mike Venezia's Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists series is dedicated to the principle of introduction children to art and artists in fun ways. His primary way of doing that is to draw engaging cartoons that highlight not only biographical information about his subjects, but which also focus on key elements of the artist's work. That means this book about Jackson Pollock plays to Venezia's strengths, and he gets to do two jokes about using an eggbeater. If you count the front and back covers, Venezia gets to do nine of his cartoons, which may not be a record but it sure seems like one for this series, which also provides solid introductions to great artists from Da Vinci to Dali.

This book begins by pointing out that Pollock was one of hte greatest artists of the 20th century and that he was best known for huge paintings made by slapptering, throwing, and dripping paint onto this canvases. Then Venezia spends the rest of this informative and entertaining volume explaining how the latter leads to the former. Young readers learn how Pollock painted, what his work was called (Abstract Expressionism) versus what he called it (Action Painting), and how they emphasized emotions and energey rather than recognizable objects. The middle part of the books covers the key aspects of Pollock's life, but the best part is when Venezia details how Pollock developed his style, because that is where young readers are going to get a mini-education in art history.

Early on Pollock was trying to paint like Thomas Hart Benton, and Venezia contrasts Benton's "Arts of the West" with Pollock's "Going West," to show how that did not really work out. Paintings by Jose Clemente Oroczco and Pablo Picasso's "Guernica" also become reference points as Venezia traces the evolution of Pollock's art, culminating in "Blue Poles." The book touches on Pollock's unhappinesss without getting into detail, but that is appropriate for an introductory look at his life and art. In the end, Venezia underscores how Pollock was not just throwing paint around and that he knew exactly what he was doing. It is suggested that seeing Jackson Pollock's paintings in person is a good thing, so it is helpful that Venezia explains where the paintings in this book come from so you have an idea of where to go to see some of them (but be careful, because some of these references are for the works by the other artists).

Pollock for kids........2000-09-24

I took last summer my two daugthers, age 6 and 9 to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. They loved it and each one choose her favorita artist. The younger one, Isabel, loved Picasso. Who doesn't?. My older daughter, Camila loved the american artist Jackson Pollock, she sat in front of his masterpiece One, admiring all that aparently no-sense. Its beautiful, she told me, and I sure can do that. She's not very good in art class and she felt identified with this painter's work. Wanting to explain his art I found a wonderful book, part of a series written by Mike Venezia about the great artists. In the case of Jackson Pollock, the author mixing words, comics and paintings explains in a fun way the wonders of the work of this artist. Pollock was the brother of a painter and went to study art as his brother did in New York, he tought he wasn't very good at it. But working and studyng with contemporary painters helped to create his personal style making him one of America's biggest contemporary artist. Try explaining that to your kid, don't bother. Mike Venezia will do the job.

Average customer rating:

development of Pollock's art style

No Limits, Just Edges: Jackson Pollock
David Anfam , Susan Davidson , and Margaret Ellis
Manufacturer: Guggenheim Museum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0892073268
Release Date: 2005-04-15

Book Description

While legendary artist Jackson Pollock has been comprehensively investigated in recent shows, a focused exhibition examining his drawings has not been organzied since 1980. No Limits, Just Edges: Jackson Pollock Paintings on Paper features a compelling group of 75 artworks drawn from the holdings of institutions and private collections worldwide. This long-awaited exhibition to be held at the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, Guggenheim Bilbao, and the Peggy Guggnheim Collection, Venice and curated by Susan Davidson considers the artist's works on paper as an essential component in his signature transformation of the traditional figurative line into a non-figurative graphic expression. This catalogue of the exhibiton begins chronologically with Pollock's early sketchbook studies based on old master paintings by Michelangelo and El Greco, as well as those influenced by his contemporaries, mainly the Mexican muralists Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. These early works reveal a figurative quality that Pollock ultimately rejected as he moved at first toward pieces that mirrored his advancements in painting, and eventually, by late 1947, to abstract compositions. Throughout his career, Pollock experimented with different media on paper, alternating the same themes on watercolor and lithography, and later adding gouache to engravings to provide interesting variations. In the last years of his life, Pollock's fascination with different types of paper led him to special hand-made sheets that allowed the paint to permeate below the main layer thus achieving fortuitous variations of his well-known poured painting technique. This fully illustrated catalogue, which shows the full range of Pollock's works on paper, includes a reassessment of his skills as a draftsman, authored by Dr. David Anfam, a noted scholar of Abstract Expressionism. Susan Davidson contributes a text that focuses on Pollock's stylistic development and the reception of his works on paper during his lifetime. A technical analysis of Pollock's working method is provided by Margaret Hoben Ellis.

Customer Reviews:

development of Pollock's art style.......2005-05-01

The German subtitle translates "works on papers." The three essays in German discuss the tools, materials, and techniques Pollock used for his art works on paper. The third essay has photographs of pencils, felt-tip pens, and eye droppers this major modern artist used in creating such works. Seventy-eight are pictured in color one per page in chronological order in one gallery-like section of this larger, rectangular-shaped book. Pollock's works are familiar, and need no general commentary. The more-focused, particularly revealing artistic theme of the essays is Pollock's liberty with lines, or edges. As the numerous works on paper show, his progress in this technique and impulse gave him unprecedented freedom and novelty as an artist. One follows the expansion of Pollock's liberty with line and corresponding new dimensions of artistic freedom over the course of this time. Early, roughly representational works and others indicating the probable influence of Miro and de Kooning lead to the more complex, abstract art that is regarded as typifying Pollock. The chronological presentation and analytic essays (in German) allow one to gain a particularly revealing understanding of the artistic achievement of this groundbreaking modern artist. The work is the catalog for an exhibition of these works of Pollock's that was in Germany and is in New York until the Fall 2005.

The Essential: Jackson Pollock (Essentials)

Average customer rating:

Cliff Notes on Pollack is a good introduction
Interesting, but unfortunately, annoying
Teaches and Entertains!
Totally great book!

The Essential: Jackson Pollock (Essentials)
Abrams
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0810958090

Amazon.com

This small, square, pocket-sized book gives readers all they need to know in order to stand in front of one of Jackson Pollock's drip paintings and resist the impulse to say, "My kid could do that." It puts the man, the myth, and the paintings in context of both pre- and post-war America. One of the Essentials series (which includes similar little books on Edward Hopper, Salvador Dali, and Vincent Van Gogh), the book presents many bright, colorful reproductions; cutesy, but quick and painless lessons in art talk--"new for this year: gestural automatism (huh?)"; and readymade underlinings with important words and phrases italicized for the hurried reader who only has time to skim the text.

Writer Justin Spring settles into Pollock's biography with narrative ease. By the end of the book he has made good on his promise to show us that it "isn't hard" to understand Pollock. He thoroughly but respectfully describes the artist's fatal alcoholism (he died in a car crash that also killed another passenger), his womanizing, his dependence on his wife, painter Lee Krasner, and his groundbreaking art. The Abstract Expressionists were an earnest bunch, Pollock especially. His unstable psyche and his drinking, intertwined, were his Achilles heel, but he emerges as the brilliant, voraciously curious cowboy-intellectual that he was. As Spring writes, Pollock created "a distinctive identity for American postwar art," for which he "endured poverty, loneliness, ridicule, and immense psychic anguish." --Peggy Moorman

Customer Reviews:

Cliff Notes on Pollack is a good introduction.......2004-03-30

The author gives us the fundamentals on Pollock, the man, the painter, the influences, the critics, contemporary painters, plus Pollock's wife Lee Krasner and other supporters. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Interesting, but unfortunately, annoying.......1999-05-18

Um...Like...underline...superficial...as if! This book is cute but it's so simple and silly, it made me feel like I was hearing the story of a great and influential artist, being told by a pretentious poser. The points it covers really are interesting and important but I think this book is a bit annoying.

Teaches and Entertains!.......1999-02-16

This book is a great first step in learning about the artist's life and understanding his work. It is a quick read, and you will learn much about Pollock and how his style was developed without overloading you on unneccessary detail. Um...Like...Buy The Book!!!

Totally great book!.......1998-11-25

Wow, now I GET what this guy's all about. Who knew? Can't wait to go to New York and see the Pollock exhibition now. It's very cool that he was sometimes so drunk he used the palm of his hand to "sign" his paintings!

Jackson Pollock: Key Interviews, Articles, and Reviews

Average customer rating:

The Norton Critical Edition of Jackson Pollock
A Great Supplement
Very disappointed!

Jackson Pollock: Key Interviews, Articles, and Reviews
Jackson Pollock
Manufacturer: The Museum of Modern Art, New York
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Criticism | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Abstract Expressionism | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Artists, A-Z | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Artists, Architects & Photographers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0870700375
Release Date: 2002-07-02

Book Description

This anthology surveys five decades of critical response to Jackson Pollock, bringing together essential and hard-to-find texts from newspapers, journals, and catalogues. It includes all of Pollock's statements about his art as well as interviews with his wife, painter Lee Krasner, providing firsthand testimony about his goals and methods. Reviews of Pollock's early exhibitions reveal the intense interest his work aroused even before he arrived at his famous technique of "dripping" paint. Later articles trace the growth of Pollock's myth after his death in 1956 and document the continuing debate over psychological and mythological interpretations of Pollock's work.

Customer Reviews:

The Norton Critical Edition of Jackson Pollock.......2002-12-21

The intended and proper audience for this terrific book is the deeply engaged Pollock student (or acolyte). Further, the volume has no artwork or pictures at all; if you're looking for a good edition of his paintings, try the wonderful MOMA exhibition catalogue, edited by Kirk Varnedoe. What this volume offers is a rich and engaging range of Pollock statements, interviews, art reviews, criticism, analysis, and aesthetic speculation. Together with a good book of his paintings, this book would give you a sort of "Norton Critical Edition" of Pollock's work--you'd have the paintings and then this record of decades of analysis.
Now, in a few cases the lack of pictures does actually hinder one's ability to follow all of the comparisons and insights these essays offer. This is especially true in this book's generous reprint of William Rubin's seminal "Jackson Pollock and the Modern Tradition", originally serialized with copious illustrations. Nonetheless this book presents, chronologically, a tremendous overview of the 20th century's evolving reception and understanding of Pollock's art, from his own published or radio-broadcast commentary to Life magazine's ambiguous (but myth-making) "Is He the Greatest Living Painter in America?" to Clement Greenberg to psychoanalytical writings to Elizabeth Langhorne's allusive and speculative examination of a single painting, "The Moon Woman Cuts the Circle." It's a great book to just pick at, what with its variety and scope, and each page poses something for consideration or debate--to the person who really knows Pollock's work and its underpinnings well. I wish this book had included something from John Berger; what the book "Such Desperate Joy" includes from him is really provocative and efficient. But I suppose that's a petty criticism in light of what this book does assemble, making availiable in one place all of this critical investigation into one of the 20th century's great artists.

A Great Supplement.......2002-11-06

This book is the type of art book that is the exception to the picture rule. The fact that there are no pictures doesn't detract a bit from the abundant amount of information it contains. I suspect greatly that this is the type of book that only those initiated into the Pollock milieu (and his work) would want to read anyhow. A fantastic source of nostalgia and information that allows the informed reader the opportunity to fill in some blanks on his own.

Very disappointed!.......2001-12-28

Image, a book about a famous artist, will all kinds of information, but ZERO pictures of either him or his paintings. Other Pollock books are better. If you must have every book about this artist, ok, get it, but put it at the bottom of your wish list.