Jackson Pollock's Mural Energy made visible

This handsomely produced book, by one of the most sensitive writers on the New York School of painting, should be on every shelf. Purportedly about Pollock's 1943 Mural, painted for Peggy Guggenheim, the book provides much more. Using this painting as a pivot point, Anfam ranges widely throughout Pollock's career, indicating sources within the critical, artistic, social, and political spheres that were deeply influential to Pollock's art from his earliest paintings until his death. Some of these may be familiar to scholars, but there are a number of new finds--dropped throughout the text as if, of course, readers knew them--that significantly expand the Pollock scholarship and provide new insights into the form of the painter's work and its resonance within its contemporary culture. The book is compellingly written and will appeal to professionals in the field and to the general reader. With all that has been written about Pollock, it comes as a wonderful surprise that there are yet significant and exciting new ways to think about this archetypal American artist of the mid-20th century. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. --John T. Paoletti, emeritus, Wesleyan University

Accompanying a current exhibition of the same name at the Guggenheim in Venice, this passionately argued text by Anfam (Mark Rothko: Works on Canvas), director of the Clyfford Still Museum's research center, delves into the personal, cultural, and artistic forces that helped shape Pollock's largest and, according to the author, most influential painting. Working across three separate sections, Anfam first looks at Pollock's close friendship with fellow abstract expressionist Clyfford Still-the deep connection they both felt toward the American West, and the resulting importance of space and limitlessness in both artists' work. Then he explores the effect of WWII and Picasso's Guernica on Pollock, and finally he examines the ripple effect that Mural had on countless artists, including Mark Rothko, David Smith, Robert Motherwell, and Richard Serra, while it was displayed in Peggy Guggenheim's entrance hall. Richly analytical, and with 106 illustrations including pages from Pollock's sketchbooks, the text draws compelling connections between Pollock's work and the paintings of J.M.W. Turner, the writings of Charles Olson, and the biological examinations of human form by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson. Also interesting is Anfam's emphasis on the effect of new photographic methods and perspectives on Mural and Pollock's work in general-in particular the 1943 Action Photography show at MoMA in New York and wartime photographs in Life magazine. This insightful study is a welcome analysis of a single work by Pollock. Illus. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.