Jackson Pollock's Mural in the Light of Photography.

This lecture examines the phenomenology of Jackson Pollock's Mural, installed in 1943 in Peggy Guggenheim's townhouse in New York (and now in Iowa City), in light of several photographs of the work in process and in situ. The painting is often seen as the major predecessor of what would emerge as Pollock's 'poured', 'drip', 'all-over' style of painterly abstraction. How did Pollock address the challenges and constraints--and opportunities--of the spatial and lighting conditions? In what sense was Pollock's Mural a wall painting--or something else? How do the photographs interpret the work and its beholders and surroundings? What did Pollock discover about the painting he had made--and about further possibilities for painting--in light of its final installation and of photographs of it?

 

Image: Jackson Pollock and his Mural (1943) as photographed by Herbert Matter in the studios of Vogue magazine in 1947.