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Customer Reviews (2)

#5 has his name in it
One point that was missed is that Pollock hid his name in his art. Mural spells out Jackson Pollock and #5 shows "Jackson" in yellow/white if you trun it 90 degree's left.

Jackson Pollock Review
This is a rehash of much of the same.The color of the images leaves something to be desired and at times, is way off.For an inexpensive book, it's easy reading and gives a few more insights into the life of this very imaginative painter. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

If you're only going to buy one book on Pollock, this is it
I strongly disagree with another Amazon reviewer who said the quality of the art reproductions in Landau's biography varied. As someone who has bought a lot of art books, I thought the color plates exceptionally vivid and a more than adequate basis for studying Pollock's work in light of Ellen Landau's insightful commentary. Every major work is presented as a full-page (or double page) image. They are simply labeled by the painting's title (and an alternate if a painting acquired one in the art world other than the one Pollock gave it himself) and the date; the usual caption clutter (medium, size, present owner) are provided in an appendix.

The narrative, divided into twelve chapters, is basically chronological. (Chapters are compact and can be read thoughtfully and leisurely in an hour or two.) Landau includes sufficient biographical information to help the reader appreciate the paintings. She doesn't ignore or minimize Pollock's alcoholism and character defects, neither does she dwell on them. The "evidence" and details concerning these matters are mostly confined to her extensive endnotes, along with expanded versions of key critics' comments on Pollock's work. Landau is cognizant of the influence of Thomas Hart Benton and gives it due attention(Readers who want to know more about the psychodynamics of the relationship between these two iconic American artists will want to read Henry Adams's Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock; see my Amazon review of that title). Readers with a lot of time on their hands who want a "womb to tomb" (to quote a favorite Pollock catch phrase) account of the artist's life are directed to Jackson Pollock: An American Saga.

Whatever biography you choose to read, you'll want Landau's book near at hand for the beautiful, detailed reproductions of Pollock's best-known paintings. The book's Selected Bibliography, unfortunately, includes only the works Landau consulted but did not cite in her notes. In other words, the reader will have to scour the notes to find other key works. (The bibliography in Adams's book is more recent, comprehensive, and reader-friendly).

Great Pollock book!
This is a fantastic Jackson Pollock book!It's filled with interesting information about the artist and have wonderful, good quality photographs of Jackson Pollock's work.I've also seen the Varnedoe book, which is also great, but much more expensive.This book is almost as good as the Varnedoe book and much less expensive!

"Jack The Dripper"Enchants and Excites the Art World
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
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
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. ... Read more

Product Description
Jackson Pollock was more than a great artist, he was a creative force of nature. He changed not only the course of Western art, but our very definition of "art." He was the quintessential tortured genius, an American Vincent van Gogh, cut from the same unconforming cloth as his contemporaries Ernest Hemingway and James Dean--and tormented by the same demons; a "cowboy artist" who rose from obscurity to take his place among the titans of modern art, and whose paintings now command millions of dollars.

Here, for the first time, is the life behind that extraordinary achievement--the disjointed childhood, the sibling rivalry, the sexual ambiguity, and the artistic frustration out of which both artist and art developed.

Based on more than 2,000 interviews with 850 people, Jackson Pollock is the first book to explore the life of a great artist with the psychological depth that marks the best biographies of literary and political figures. In eight years of research the authors have uncovered previously unknown letters and documents, gained access to medical and psychiatric records, and interviewed scores of the artist's friends and acquaintances whose stories had never been told. They were also the first biographers in twenty years to benefit from the cooperation of Pollock's widow, Lee Krasner.

The results of these unprecedented efforts lie before you: a rich, sprawling, landmark biography of one of the most compelling figures in all of American culture; a brilliant, explosive "portrait of the artist," intimately detailed, abundantly illustrated (with more than 200 photographs from Pollock's life and work, many of them never before published), and filled with new information and new insights.

In a style as richly textured, engrossing, and poignant as the best of contemporary literature, Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith give us the family crucible out of which the artist and his art emerged. Beginning with Jackson's birth on a sheep ranch in Wyoming, we follow the Pollock family on a relentless trek across the American West, as their dreams of a better life somewhere else are repeatedly frustrated. We see the young Jack Pollock as a struggling art student in New York, escaping into drunken rages or throwing himself into the Hudson River in one of several attempts at suicide.

Later, we see Pollock, by turns, gently affectionate and outrageously cruel, creatively bankrupt and heroically productive. We see him alternately fascinated and intimidated by his contemporaries: Clement Greenberg, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Harold Rosenberg, Clyfford Still, Tennessee Williams. We see him enter into a tumultuous marriage with the painter Lee Krasner, creating a powerful alliance that will lead first to triumph, then to decline, and finally to death when, with his mistress at his side, Pollock smashes his car into a tree.

But Jackson Pollock is more than the epic story of a tormented man and his sublime art, it is also a compulsively readable, sweeping saga of America's cultural coming of age. From frontier Iowa to the dust bowl of Arizona, from the twilight of the Wild West to the desolation of Depression-era New York, from the excitement and experimentation of the Mexican muralists to the fanfare of the Surrealists' visit to America, from the arts projects of the WPA to the explosion of interest and money that marked the beginning of the modern art world, Pollock's story unfolds against the dramatic landscape of American history.

Here then is a definitive record of the journey of an artist, filled with piercing psychological insights, that brings us to a truer understanding of the power and pathos of creative genius. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Unmissable
This superb book ranks among the finest biographies; not by coincidence did it win the Pulitzer Prize. Jackson Pollock's life is painted to rich detail, and so is the life of the Depression-era, New York artistic scene enveloping him. I didn't want it to end. What a troubled life, what a talented man, what an amazing period of art history that was.

Great Book!
this is a great book that i tried to get for years at bookstores and it only took 5 "Clicks" on the mouse to get it on the internet. If you like Jackson Pollock and you want to know more, this is the book for you.

A great book...
This book was riveting and insightful on many levels.
Life in America, the art scene in NYC, and of course Pollack, who struggledfor many years to find his own "voice".

jackson pollock
couldn't track down what this book was at the time and let myself get talked into buying that dekooning bio instead.

Good job
The writers have given us a very detailed view of the painter. When I finished the book I had a lot less respect for the man(he comes across as self-centered, insecure and immature), and more respect for his paintings. There was a little too much unnecessary psycho-speculation and they should have let us draw our own opinions. ... Read more

Product Description
Jackson Pollock made a tremendous impact on Modern art in the twentieth century. As a pioneer of Abstract Expressionism, he was a key figure in the postwar tradition that brought American art to the forefront of the international scene. This new volume in the MoMA Artist Series, which explores important artists and favorite works in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, guides readers through a dozen of the artist's most memorable achievements. A short and lively essay by Carolyn Lanchner, a former curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum, accompanies each work, illuminating its significance and placing it in its historical moment in the development of Modern art and the artist's own life. This volume provides a unique overview of someone who shaped the development of American art since mid-century and is an excellent resource for readers interested in the stories behind the masterpieces of the Modern canon.Amazon.com Review
The almost mythic Jackson Pollock--a roughshod, ill-mannered,prodigiously ambitious, aggressive, alcoholic, tormented artist--isalive and unwell in this book. But Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel, thechief curator and adjunct assistant curator, respectively, of theMuseum of Modern Art's Department of Painting and Sculpture, also godeeply into Pollock's art in eye-opening ways. This book is thecatalog for the retrospective of Pollock's art-shattering oeuvre atthe Museum of Modern Art in the fall of 1998 and includes manybiographical pictures as well as color plates of Pollock's paintings,from the awkward but earnest early works to the late, great, famouscanvasses. Varnedoe's essay, aptly titled "Comet: Jackson Pollock'sLife 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, "Pollockat Work: The Films and Photographs of Hans Namuth," is a trulygroundbreaking exploration of Pollock's technique. Karmel hasscrutinized every frame of every piece of film, still or moving, evertaken of Pollock painting. He arrives at absolutely originalconclusions: Pollock's all-over swirls of dripped and flung paintoften began as figurative works and clearly relate to suchall-American stalwarts as Thomas Hart Benton. Karmel makes countlessother sharp observations, noting the difference, for example, betweenfast-looking marks and the slow, deliberate movements with which theywere made (and vice versa). His essay is a work of brilliantscholarship, written thrillingly, and it will forever change the wayany serious viewer looks at Pollock's paintings. It makes this volumeabsolutely essential for understanding the work of this great, sadartist. --Peggy Moorman ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Excellent
This item came WAY before the expected arrival date and was in the condition the seller stated it would be.I was very satisfied with it :)

Pollock, only Pollock, nothing else but Pollock
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.

simply the best
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
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
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 abetter understanding of what Pollock was REALLY DOING.

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

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

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

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

Well worth the price. ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides an entertaining and humorous introduction to the famous artist, Jackson Pollock. Full-colour reproductions of the actual paintings are enhanced by Venezia''s clever illustrations and story line.' ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Best Kid Friendly Art Book Series
I use these for teaching to kids in art classes. They love the comics in them, the pictures keep them interested, and they are very educational. I am a HUGE fan! Most books in the series cover the artist, art style, and pertinent art history. Pollock is just a wonderful artist for kids to learn how to experiment with media and style.

Great for teachers!
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
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.
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 inart 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. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (7)

Creative Inspiration for kids
Action Jackson
By Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan
2007, Square Fish, Holtzbrink Publishers
Robert F. Sibert Honor Book

Review by Debra Louise Scott

This is an "imagined" biography of the artist Jackson Pollock. The narrative is lyrical, almost poetic, as the authors describe what they imagine would have been going through Pollock's mind as he created his improvisational abstracts. The words made me want to pick up my own dusty art supplies and throw some paint around to try to capture the song of a bird or the intersections between the trees.

This would be an excellent book for a children's art class, to encourage them to put their whole selves into their work and not be tied to what they think the adult wants them to create.

At the back of the book is an actual biography of Pollock, a section on notes and sources, and a bibliography for more information. I would recommend that the teacher or parent have a little familiarity with his work before picking this one up to read to the children.

Great Book!
A fantastic book that captures the essence of Pollock's life in a children's format. I hope my son enjoys his art as much as I have. This is a great way to introduce children to this historic artist.

Art as process
When modern art is brought to the table, the question for the untrained is quite often: Is this art? What makes art? Can I do this? For such questions, answers always vary. It is art if you think it is art even if it may not be good art. The final consensus is that it is art if it challenges and sustains. Such art is universally held to be art.

Early on, modern art broke tradition, broke stereotypes, and set the art world on its heels. Until this time artists tried to capture a realistic experience--people, objects, landscapes--and put them on canvas. The moderns were the first to ignore the boundaries of the canvas. In fact, iconoclasts that they were, they acknowledged the confines of the canvas and its two-dimensional world and started experimenting with new techniques. The Impressionistic painters were the first, then the Post-Impressionistic painters went jumps ahead. Instead of painting broad realistic pictures, they began defying shapes, colors, time.

Jackson Pollock represents one segment of this new modern art, that which is called "action painting," or "spatter painting." This book, "Action Jackson," details Jackson's technique of creating art and making the viewer feel and appreciate his vision and told simply enough for a child to understand.

How did Jackson work? He lay out a huge canvas on the floor of his studio, studied it, then spattered house paint across it--directly from the can, from a stick, a brush. He worked over a series of days to get everything just right.

His vision was to lay out colors and patterns and the intermixing of colors and patterns to create a canvas that spoke of something more cosmic than a bowl of apples. For Jackson the process of painting said as much as the final product. This book beautifully conveys the idea of his vision and his process and his final product. I never dreamed a writer and an illustrator could capture the essence of Pollock's work in one thin children's book, but this most definitely does.

Perhaps the success of this book in capturing Jackson's style and work earned it an Honor Award in the Robert F. Siebert contest, and a New York Times Best Book of the Year, and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. "Action Jackson" was published in 2002. Jackson Pollock died in a car crash in 1956.

Great book
I am am Elementary Art teacher and I use this book in my classroom. The children love the story. I personally like how the children can get into the world of "Action Jackson" without knowing the actions of Jackson.

Well done
This book is an unusual children's book and about a character whose artwork will appeal to children.Although his life is not an uplifting story, the book picks up on the important parts and gives a feeling for what "Action Jackson" was all about.His freedom to create what he wanted and put his feeling on canvas is an important message to children who need to know that there are many way to be creative.That is it is OK to put their feeling into their art without worrying about whether it is "right" or "good".It is a quiet book about an artist who was quiet but whose life was certainly active as was his art. ... Read more

Product Description
More than fifty years after Peggy Guggenheim's first Venice show in 1950, the legacy of Jackson Pollock returns to Italy in two major retrospectives. Separate shows at Courer, Venice and at the Centro Culturale Candiani in Mestre have brought together works from American and European collections including from the Metropolitan; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Tate Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome. Taken together these two shows trace a parabola from Pollock's early figurative work to the "action paintings" of the Fifties and describe a fresh view of working painters in New York City from late 1930s to mid-1950s.

This deluxe hardcover catalog includes both exhibitions: the central figure is Pollock as seen at the Correr's "Jackson Pollock in Venice", while the Candiani presents his New York School contemporaries in "The Irascibles", an exhibition that includes work by Lee Krasner, Arshile Gorky, Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt, Adolph Gottlieb, De Kooning, Rothko, and
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Compositions of Psychic Spectrums
The Irascibles were a group of individualistic abstract painters who were too strong willed and egotistic to accept a group identity.No such unity ever existed.But there they were gathered (01/15/1951) the most powerful figures in art.For an evening of comraderie and argument.

Together they had changed art forever.What we all know now as modern art is under direct influence of the Irascibles.Oh sure there were Cezanne and Picasso and a host of other artists that changed courses in art consciousness.But the abstract expressionists approached their art with unmathed energy.Their compositions spanned fields of psychic spectrums.Together they effected a bold synthesis.

This fantastic book features a wide selection of abstract expressionism.The title uses Jackson Pollock's name to grab your attention.And rightfully so.He did break it wide open.And his art has proved itself standing amongst the top few masters of art in history.But the selections include wonderful reproductions by all the major Irascibles:Rothko, Krasner, Still, Stamos, Motherwell, Gorky, Newman, de Kooning, Gottlieb,and others. . . . .'Irascibles' was labeled during an impromptu photo on that infamous evening.

The many reproductions include rarely available Pollock's 'Beach Figures', 'Portrait of HM', 'Sun Scape'.Others include overbearing Ossorio's 'Totem',Krasner's 'Lava', and a sprinkling of Motherwell,Rothko, Smith, et al.Note: a 5 star rating evades this book due to its lack of more Irascibles reproductions.But overall its a good book.

Without fanfare companionship this New York group of artists imposed a most profoud sweeping influence upon the skin of society.A must have book for anyone with an amore for AB-EX.(Our recommended companion to this book would be 'Abstract Expressionism' by David Anfam). ... Read more

Product Description
No modern artist is more controversial than Jackson Pollock, whose life is the subject of a new feature film starring Ed Harris. With an intense, troubled personality that many see reflected in his radical "drip" paintings, Pollock was the first American painter to be hailed internationally as an innovator. Even before his death in a drunken car crash in 1956, he was mythologized as Abstract Expressionism's quintessential bad boy. But he was also respected for his sincerity, loved for his sweet nature, and envied for his brilliance. Today Pollock's legend looms larger than ever, inspiring poets, playwrights, composers, and choreographers, as well as visual artists. The film Pollock starring Ed Harris as Jackson Pollock, Marcia Gay Harden, Val Kilmer, and Jennifer Connelly is set to be released late Fall 2000. His art, never popular in the conventional sense, has a growing cadre of dedicated enthusiasts. Why is Pollock such an enduring touchstone of American culture? This collection of writings, interviews, creative responses, and personal revelations - many never before published or long out of print - examines the multiple dimensions of his impact and influence, and proves that the real Pollock is even more fascinating than the myth. The book includes never before published art, photos, letters and interviews from the Pollock-Krasner House archives, new contributions by actor/director Ed Harris and musician Patti Smith, and interviews with Patsy Southgate and Willem de Kooning, as well as Clement Greenberg, Peggy Guggenheim, Hans Namuth, Frank O'Hara, Jeffrey Potter, Norman Rockwell, and Barney Rossett. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

received this paperback quickly
I received this book about Pollack quickly and found it a fascinating read. It gives many points of view and input of his contemporaries and is the best book about him I have found.

Great source of material
This is a great collection of information on Pollock. One of the greatest things to note is the inclusion of material from after his death in 1956, his influence on society. This includes editorial cartoons, poems written about and inspired by Pollock and his work, as well as scripts from plays based on his life. I would have to say that if you were looking for a good introduction to the man, the artist, and the influence he had/has on contemporary society, then pick this collection up. ... Read more

Product Description
Illustrated with twenty-five reproductions of Pollock's paintings, the book looks into the passions, conflicts, relationships, and influences of the artist, Jackson Pollock, widely considered the finest American painter of the twentieth century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Good Pollock info
I liked this book. I've read a lot about Pollock, but this book had more info about his family and early years than I've ever seen. It made him a lot more understandable as a person so that I could see him as more than a raging alcoholic. It also refutes some of the Pollock myths such as his peeing in Peggy Guggenheim's fireplace at a party. This is a real bio, not just an artist's bio.

A most critical and detail-filled look
Jackson Pollock is the fascinating and well crafted biography of a truly remarkable and influential American painter who held himself to the most demanding standards. Biographer Deborah Solomon interviewed more than two hundred people to reconstruct Pollock's brilliant yet contrary and sometimes self-destructive life. A most critical and detail-filled look at a very complicated artist and a highly recommended addition to personal, academic, and community library art history and biography collections.

Manages to make Pollock Dull
I checked this book out at the local library along with a text on how to transfer course units from a business major into psychology. This book made the reference text read like a novel. Truly dreadful. Avoid this even if it's free. ... Read more

Product Description
Presenting nine critical essays by leading scholars--among them T.J. Clark, Robert Storr, James Coddington, Rosalind Krauss, and Kirk Varnedoe--this collection offers dramatically different ways of understanding Jackson Pollock's art and influence. Revealing not just the richness of Pollock's work, but also the vitality and diversity of contemporary criticisms, these texts discuss the crisis of easel painting, Pollock's relationship with his wife, artist Helen Frankenthaler, the Americanization of Europe, and the place of chaos in Pollock's work. Based on a symposium held in 1999 during The Museum of Modern Art, New York's retrospective exhibition of Pollock's oeuvre, this volume is a companion to Jackson Pollock: Key Interviews, Articles, and Reviews, a collection of older texts by or about the artist.

Edited by Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel.
Essays by T.J. Clark, Robert Storr, James Coddington, Carol C. Mancusi-Ungaro, Rosalind E. Krauss, Anne M. Wagner, Jeremy Lewison, Pepe Karmel and Kirk Varnedoe. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Pollock-a closer examination
I like the insightful approach of Pollock's life given by the three authors: Clark, Coddington, and Lewison. Well written with input from Kirk Varnedoe (who published a couple of 11x14 hardbacks on Pollock).Lots of references to his relationships with other artists and his wife, Lee Krasner.Images are okay--black and whites. ... Read more

Product Description
The Jackson Pollock Artist Box is designed to introduce you to Pollock the person and Pollock the artist, and to provide projects that will put you in touch with his creative process. Using his techniques, you can invent your own images and arrive at your own statement. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Pollock x 14
I don't claim to understand Jackson Pollock's paintings but this book of 14 prints on a paper size that is about 90% A3 size is great value for money.

The earliest prints from the 1930's onwards show the influence of many artists, including Picasso. His later work is apparently abstract and surreal at first viewing. However with repeated viewings you do start to see things in the paintings that perhaps were intended, or perhaps not.

The prints are:
The Moon-Woman
Male and female
The Moon-Woman Cuts the Circle
Composition with Pouring II
Gothic
Night Mist
Croaking Movement
Full fathom Five
Untitled (1948/49)
Number 15
Untitled (1949)
Untitled (1949)
Lavender Mist: Number 1
Convergence: Number 10

Each print has details about it on the reverse. The prints are on good quality card and I'm looking forward to turning my living room into a Pollock gallery for a while!

A good portfolio
This portfolio contains many of his major works, and the pictures are high quality and glossy. My only complaint is that the ink is a little too glossy. It includes works from early to late, highlighting the progression of his artistic style. ... Read more

Product Description
A bewitching collection of short fiction--haunting and hypnotic meditations on art, movies, literature, and life. In "Dream of a Clean Slate," Jackson Pollock the man struggles with the separation he feels from Jackson Pollock the artist; "The Judgement of Psycho," probes the sexual dynamic of Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins in Psycho, and then delves into the relationship between Hector and Paris in the Iliad; and Orson Welles presides over "Crimes at Midnight," a tense evocation of desire and its consequences. A series of myths for modern times, this is an astonishing debut.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Best Book I've Read This Year
Believe the review on this page that says the book is astonishing. I've never read anything quite like it. Why would anyone who read it call it "senseless" - ? That reader really missed the mark. This is fascinating writing - the author is a master at seeing similarities between things which, on the surface, are dissimilar. From high culture to low, Haskell brings it all together into one frame. I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone interested in ficition that isn't dead in the water. If you're tired of formulaic writing, this one will wake you up. This is infused with motion and risk. A lovely book, my favorite of many read in the last year.

Vagaries in the search of reality
John Haskell is a writer new to the reading (though not the performing) world and his voice is one that stirs interest, primarily because it is unique. He tells these nine 'short stories' - they seem more like extended meditations or themes and fugues - in a manner that combines known public figures (a particular penchant for old movie stars and old movies) with imaginary cast members to explore the thin line of reality vs fiction. He makes bizarre choices in combining such people as Orson Welles, Joseph Coton, Falstaff, Prince Hal and Janet Leigh to ponder self perception:"...once we think we know who we are, to change who we are means giving up what we love, even if we hate it." The haiku poet Basho is intertwined with thoughts about John Keats;Keats falls short of relating to Fanny Brawne until he faces his moment of death; Basho confesses he "...wants to find beauty and harmony, but something is always distracting him - people usually - pulling him off the road."Mercedes McCambridge, the devil voice of Linda Blair in "The Exorcist", struggles with alcoholism, Joan of Arc is recallled historically and through the various guises of the actress who portrayed her in the film.Sound confusing?Well it is, and sometimes the obtuseness of Haskell's technique borders on not the absurd, but the senseless.I think we're seeing the early work of a mind that is rich in fluid imagination. I feel as though this author has a lot to say but is hiding behind the likes of Jackson Pollock and Joan of Arc and Ganesha for fear of not being noticed.I don't think he needs this gimmick and I eagerly await his next novel. He WILL be noticed on his own rights.

An author to watch
Publisher's Weekly (editorial reviews) describes the nature of this book far better than the previous customer review. Haskell is ambitious, knows this work is perversely anomalous, but isn't motivated by difference for its own sake.He's winnowed down what really interests him in fiction and is relying on myth, news accounts, and film scenarios the way a composer might riff on familiar melodies.

None of these pieces (though in a sense the complete book has an inviolate structure of its own) was transcendent, however.I was interested but not rapt.No sirens or fireworks went off.But Haskell is nonetheless an artist in the best sense;he is after something beyond the familiar confines of fiction, is following his own muse without apology or a need to ingratiate himself with the reader, and I have a strong hunch that his best efforts lie ahead.He is original, focused, and definitely a writer to watch.

Terrific premise with very good execution.
John Haskell's first short story collection takes key figures from history, identifies them at defining moments in their existence and builds a story around them to explain their significance. It's an interesting take on the short story, which some say is a dying art, and Haskell does good work, for the most part.

His premise, though, turns the "stories" into more analysis of moment than a narrative. Occasionally, the stories become bogged down and feel like essays, though this is itself is intellectually stimulating.

He gives the reader a look inside Jackson Pollock's head in one piece, granting you the opportunity to follow Pollock's reasoning.

In "Elephant Feelings," the best of the stories, Haskell takes three figures from culture and history and draws parallels between them. (It feels like a shorter version of "The Hours," even, except with mythical characters and an elephant playing the Virginia Woolf part.) But not enough is done with the premise, in my opinion.

As with all the stories, I felt like the characters and moments were well-drawn. But, to justify going into all this detail, I wished it'd featured less analysis and more plot. ... Read more

Product 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.

Edited by Pepe Karmel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The Norton Critical Edition of Jackson Pollock
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
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!
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. ... Read more

Product 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.Essays by Susan Davidson, David Anfam and Margaret Hoben Ellis.Hardcover, 11 x 9.5 in./140 pgs / 75 color. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

development of Pollock's art style
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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Unmissable
This superb book ranks among the finest biographies; not by coincidence did it win the Pulitzer Prize. Jackson Pollock's life is painted to rich detail, and so is the life of the Depression-era, New York artistic scene enveloping him. I didn't want it to end. What a troubled life, what a talented man, what an amazing period of art history that was.

Great Book!
this is a great book that i tried to get for years at bookstores and it only took 5 "Clicks" on the mouse to get it on the internet. If you like Jackson Pollock and you want to know more, this is the book for you.

A great book...
This book was riveting and insightful on many levels.
Life in America, the art scene in NYC, and of course Pollack, who struggledfor many years to find his own "voice".

jackson pollock
couldn't track down what this book was at the time and let myself get talked into buying that dekooning bio instead.

Good job
The writers have given us a very detailed view of the painter. When I finished the book I had a lot less respect for the man(he comes across as self-centered, insecure and immature), and more respect for his paintings. There was a little too much unnecessary psycho-speculation and they should have let us draw our own opinions. ... Read more

Product Description
For readers who have little time to spare and are averse to art-world jargon, this series aims to provide an entertaining guide to individual artists and pop culture. Each volume presents an account of the artist's life, personal and professional anecdotes, concise definitions of cultural and social movements that shaped the artist's work, and colour reproductions. Jackson Pollock has been described as the most important American painter of the 20th century, and is credited with having invented Abstract Impressionism. Thrust into international celebrity, he died violently. This book considers the question of what is significant about Pollock's "drip" paintings, what caused his mental breakdowns, and what his western upbringing has to do with his art.Amazon.com Review
This small, square, pocket-sized book gives readers all theyneed to know in order to stand in front of one of Jackson Pollock'sdrip 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 includessimilar little books on Edward Hopper, Salvador Dali, and Vincent VanGogh), 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 importantwords and phrases italicized for the hurried reader who only has timeto skim the text.

Writer Justin Spring settles into Pollock's biography with narrativeease. By the end of the book he has made good on his promise to showus that it "isn't hard" to understand Pollock. He thoroughly butrespectfully describes the artist's fatal alcoholism (he died in a carcrash that also killed another passenger), his womanizing, hisdependence on his wife, painter Lee Krasner, and his groundbreakingart. The Abstract Expressionists were an earnest bunch, Pollockespecially. His unstable psyche and his drinking, intertwined, werehis Achilles heel, but he emerges as the brilliant, voraciouslycurious cowboy-intellectual that he was. As Spring writes, Pollockcreated "a distinctive identity for American postwar art," for whichhe "endured poverty, loneliness, ridicule, and immense psychicanguish." --Peggy Moorman ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Cliff Notes on Pollack is a good introduction
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
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 itcovers really are interesting and important but I think this book is a bitannoying.

Teaches and Entertains!
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 onunneccessary detail. Um...Like...Buy The Book!!!

Totally great book!
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" hispaintings! ... Read more

Product Description
The drip paintings of Jackson Pollock, trailblazing Abstract Expressionist, appear to be the polar opposite of Thomas Hart Benton's highly figurative Americana. Yet the two men had a close and highly charged relationship dating from Pollock's days as a student under Benton. Pollock's first and only formal training came from Benton, and the older man soon became a surrogate father to Pollock. In true Oedipal fashion, Pollock even fell in love with Benton's wife.

Customer Reviews (7)

Masculinity and art
In TOM AND JACK, Henry Adams, one of the creative contributors to the documentaryKen Burns' America: Thomas Hart Benton, takes a close look at the influence of Thomas Hart Benton on perhaps the greatest American artist of the twentieth century, Jackson Pollock. In this rich and insightful dual portrait, Adams first must rehabilitate Benton's reputation as a prolific, dynamic, and socially progressive realist who rose to fame as a WPA mural painter. Adams looks at Benton's expatriate experiences in Paris, the influence of the now forgotten school of Synchromism on his sense of dynamism, and examines Benton's eventual decline (dismissal really) in the eyes of fellow artists and east coast intellectuals. As a teacher at the Art Students League in New York, Benton enjoyed being an iconoclastic influence on his mostly male students. Pollock and Pollock's brothers, also artists, were part of this group. Although Benton and Pollock were quite different in many ways (Benton was quite learned and well read while Pollock was inarticulate, if not exactly illiterate), they were both highly driven artists who never really felt themselves to be artworld insiders. Adams is at his best when analysing the men's artwork, but he is equally comfortable exploring the psychology of their relationship. Since Pollock spent a good deal of time in psychotherapy, Adams's marshalling of Freudian and Jungian psychoanalytical theories as practiced in mid-century America is not out of place, and his presentation of Pollock's relatiohip with Benton and Benton's wife Rita as classically Oedipal is convincing.

In the first part of the book, Adams reveals the abstraction within Benton's realistic paintings; in the second part, he exposes the figurative and orderly elements hidden in Pollock's masterpieces. "It's telling," Adams writes, "that Pollock considered Einstein and Freud the two most important figures of modern times: one delved into the structure of the universe, the other into the structure of the unconscious. The power of Pollock's great drip paintings is that they seem to explore both these mysterious realms" (p. 324).

The book contains 16 pages of color reproductions, but I found it helpful to also consult Ellen Landau's Jackson Pollock, with its exquisite color plates of all of Pollock's major works. (I couldn't find anything comparable for Benton.) TOM and JACK also helped me to better understand Ed Harris's well-made but often elliptical film Pollock. Adams packs a lot into his 400-page dual biography. Its scholarship is well-considered and never bogs down the narrative; TOM AND JACK is a book I'm sure I'll return to again and again as I continue to study and enjoy the work of these two great American artists.

a really interesting book
This is simply a facinating book. It informs without overwhelming the reader on the line of influence from the Synchomists to Benton and on to Pollock in a logical way. The book is well written and captures the personalities of the various characters- and they were really characters- along the way from Willard Wright aka S.S. Van Dyne, Albert Barnes,Benton and his family and Pollock and his.

Excellent look at two great artists!
This book is the best book I've ever read on Jackson Pollock and the only book I've read on Thomas Benton.I've read many books on Jackson Pollock and they all always have about the same things to say, giving only little information into Jackson's relationship with Thomas Benton.This book goes in-depth into their relationship and the relationship between Jackson and Benton's wife, Rita.
I also read some things about Lee Krasner that I had never read before, in regards to her personality, her motives for her relationship to Jackson, and the way their relationship functioned.
This book also takes an in-depth look at Benton's life and his relationship with the art world.
This book is very well-rounded, well-thought out and insightful!I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in art, in Jackson Pollock and/or in Thomas Benton!

Engrossing and Enlightening
Henry Adams is a most knowledgable anddelightful biographer. I thought I knew a great deal about Thomas Benton and just a little about Jackson Pollock. In this engrossing book, Henry Adams succeeded in not only detailing the lives and works of both artists, but introduced me to the many other fascinating people whose lives were interspliced with theirs. No novelist could possibly create as many extraordinary characters and events as Mr. Adams manages to chronicle in this definitive work.I can't thank him enough for this insightful and delightful look into the lives of "Tom and Jack."

Pollock's#5 has his name hidden in it too!
It is great book with a blockbuster discovery - Jackson Pollock hid his name in the painting 'Mural'.
*NOTE: The most expensive painting of all-time (#5), ALSO has his name hidden in it! Rotate the piece 90 degrees left and you can see "Jackson" in huge yellow/white letters! ... Read more