BY PAUL SCHINDLER | With “Jackson Pollock: A Collection Survey, 1934–1954,” the Museum of Modern Art offers what it terms “a concise but detailed survey” of this abstract impressionist American painter.
The exhibition, which runs from November 22 through March 16 in the second floor Paul J. Sachs Prints and Illustrated Books Galleries, traces his evolution from the 1930s and early 1940s — during part of which he worked for the WPA Federal Art Project — when his work consisted of what MoMA describes as “loosely figurative images based on mythical or primeval themes,” to the late ‘40s and early ‘50s when he pioneered his “drip painting” style that resulted in the radical abstractions for which he is best known.
A reclusive figure — with his wife Lee Krasner, a painter and the steward of his legacy after his death at 44, he left Manhattan for the then quiet confines of Long Island’s East End toward the end of 1945 — Pollock struggled with alcoholism and sought Jungian psychotherapy, the influence of which some critics see in his work after 1940. He died when he crashed his convertible under the influence of alcohol in the summer of 1956.
MoMA’s exhibition features about 50 works—paintings, drawings, and prints — from its collection, which the museum boasts “is unparalleled in the breadth, depth, and quality” of Pollock holdings.
The exhibition includes what MoMA termed arguably Pollock’s greatest masterpiece, “One: Number 31, 1950” (1950).
The exhibition also includes rare and little-known engravings, lithographs, screenprints, and drawings.
The array of works brought together here, drawing on a wide array of materials and techniques, underscores, in MoMA’s estimation, “the relentless experimentation and emphasis on process that was at the heart of Pollock’s creativity.”
JACKSON POLLOCK: A COLLECTION SURVEY, 1934–1954 | Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St. | Nov. 22-Mar. 16: Fri., 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sat.-Thu., 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. | $25; $18 for seniors; $14 for students | moma.org
