JACKSON POLLOCK (PAPERBACK) /ANGLAIS

by LANDAU ELLEN G

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"

Genres: Art, Biography, History

284 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1989

Reviews

[notgettingenough]

Seeing Pollock in the Peggy Guggenheim in Venice a couple of days ago - well, it's like going home to an Australian.

Our Labour government in the early seventies - the one that was sacked a bit later - spent over $2M buying Blue Poles. It was the most ever paid in the world for 'modern' art at the time. It was a National Scandal, of course. Well, I mean, who couldn't bang a bit of paint on a canvas like that? Especially if drunk and Pollock and his mates were when they whacked this together.

It inspired a great cleaning product ad on TV in Australia - I rather think Australia must be the only country in the world where Pollock was a household name - Pollock 'does a painting' on his loungeroom floor, goes out, cleaning lady comes in, rolls eyes in exasperated fashion, he's made one of those messes again, but she cleans it all up in no time with - Sorry, can't remember the end.

I digress.

What I wanted to point out, having been a complete narrow minded philistine in the museum is that I discover there is a fantastic connection between Pollock and physics and an observation that art is often ahead of science. For more read the Pollock The Closet Physicist here: http://www.science20.com/news_article... and this on Chaos Theory and Pollock: http://pages.uoregon.edu/msiuo/taylor...

Can I take it all back? Please, sir, I don't want to be a philistine.

[Rob Woodard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent overview of Pollock's career. The plates are extremely well done and the text is insightful. Most importantly, the author manages to delve deeply into her subject without resorting to the pompous art-speak that dominates so much art writing. The only real negative is that the specific medium is not listed for each painting. For an artist such as Pollack who used so many unusual paints and other materials this would seem to be a basic necessity. This is a minor complaint, though. If I were allowed to I'd give this book four-and-a-half stars.

[Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bio and lovely plates. It was a great read and even better look.

[Disupo2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm glad to see some of his earlier works before the paint splatters. Sadly he self medicated his bi-polar disorder with booze and died, like so many other talented artists, well before his prime, or not?

[Ed Smiley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good biography. Excellent illustrations.