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 (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

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
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

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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
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
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

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
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
This epic biographical poem chronicles the life of the dynamic and controversial American painter Jackson Pollock. The magnificent narrative chronicles Pollock's reckless, adventurous, and often desperate life, from his beginnings in the American northwest through his pioneering of a revolutionary new painting technique that came to be known as Abstract Expressionism to his death behind the wheel of a car on Long Island when he was only 44 years old. Written entirely in iambic trimeter, the poem captures the essence of the brilliant yet tortured artist in language that is as breathtaking as a Pollock painting: spontaneous, beautiful, and haunting, with bursts of energy that touch the soul and make it soar. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent overview of Jackson Pollock's life
I enjoyed the iambic trimeter of the book. The prose feels spare but got me in sideways into Pollock's consciousness. Well worth reading for anyone who wants to understand modern art. Pollock would have benefited from a more religious upbringing. Who knows what he might have accomplished had he not been so internally tortured?

Blazing comet burning out!
This book was a revelation to me! I've always loved the strength
and delicacy of Pollock's works, without ever being able to place the undercurrent of violence and black rage in it. Now I understand. What a fascinating picture of how an artist can turn
what to others would be crippling limitations into lasting beauty!
Thank you, Martin Gray, for opening my eyes. ... 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

Customer Reviews (1)

A Look into the Early Years
This book beautifully illuminates the hardships and struggles that stood in the way of Jackson Pollock in his early years. This book tells the true story about his struggle to get the recognition he deserved and his courage in the face of adverse reviews. I think it beautifully illustrates howtrying to make as an artist isn't easy and portrays it through the exampleof Jackson Pollock.This is the most descriptive and best out of all 30books on Jackson Pollock I have read. ... Read more

Product Description
"In the beginning, the canvas is white, void; then the cautious start, then the running of the paint from the pot onto the white of the surface..." Hans Namuth.Born in 1912, in a small town in Wyoming, Jackson Pollock embodied the American dream as the country found itself confronted with the realities of a modern era which began to replace the fading nineteenth century. Just like in a novel, Pollock left home in search of fame and fortune in New York City. Thanks to the Federal Art Project, he quickly won acclaim, and after the Second World War became the biggest art celebrity in America. For De Kooning, Pollock was the "icebreaker." For Max Ernst and Masson, Pollock was a fellow member of the European surrealist movement. And for Motherwell, Pollock was a legitimate candidate for the status of the Master of the American School. During the many upheavals in his life in New York in the 1950s and 60s, Pollock lost his bearings - success had simply come too fast and too easily. It was during this period that he turned to alcohol and destroyed his marriage to Lee Krasner. Eventually, he achieved truly legendary status, ending his life! like that other great star of the period, James Dean, killing himself after a night of drinking, behind the wheel of his Oldsmobile. This book throws light on a new era in art and on the personality of Pollock through the work which made him the undisputed master of Abstract American Expressionism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Pollock Unveiled
I must confess to having litle appreciation of the work of Jackson Pollock before reading Donald Wigal's "Pollock: Veiling the Image."This was surely due in large part to my bias in favor of representational art--a bias that endures.But this book has brought me to a genuine appreciation of a major artist.A light went on when I read: "Several artists stress the theme about Abstract Expressionism in theory, but some acted it out less convincingly in their work.Likewise, other artists observe the effect paint has when dripped on to a surface, but none before Pollock developed it into the brilliant visual polyphony he made happen" (94).That phrase, "brilliant visual polyphony," was the light switch.I suddenly realized the kinship between abstract impressionism and music.I would never have demanded that a concerto have an identifiable subject.Thanks to Donald Wigal and to the marvelous reproductions in this book, I now recognize that Pollock is at his best when he is least representational, and that Pollock at his best is brilliant.
It occurs to me that there is a polyphonic quality to Wigal's text that mirrors the subject:There is, within a clear organization, a polyphonic overlay of cultural history, biographical fact, psychological observations, and critical insights, that is ingeniously suited to the complexity of the subject.Here art criticism reaches a high artistic level in its own right, and I find myself personally enriched.
If "Jackson Pollock: Veiling the Image" can do for others what it has done for me, it should be a valuable and enduring contribution to art criticism.

Joseph H. Wessling

Overarching new vision of Pollock for today
Wigal's "Veiling the Image" is a new vision of Pollock -- something completely grand & overarching as nothing else I've read & reinvigorates things for today's minds. It's complex, incredibly interesting, imaginative & makes one desire to re-engage with it's sense of contemporary relevancy & beauty. The text is fascinating & compelling -- actually awesome & totally readable. It examines Harris's film & moves forward to 2005 including interviews about my own yet to be released www.Pollocksquared.com indie feature.

Wigal's incredibly researched all of this not only philosophically but poured it all out in more fresh ways than one can imagine with wonderful fresh vignettes not only about Pollock in great detail but his milieux including Ruth Kligman, DeKooning, Agnes Martin, Frank O'Hara, Larry Rivers, includes references to many artists & critics of today including fractal scientist Richard Taylor. It even explores the market as related to Pollock's prices. The perfect unified one in all book for any Pollock lover or for people who never got it before -- because they will now. Does what other books can't. It looks like publisher Parkstone spared no expense in every aspect of quality control with this wonderful & beautiful production. It makes sense for today's modern audience.

For myself as an artist the vast number of large Pollock reproductions & their clarity of color & sharpness surpass by far the best I've seen of any Pollock's before. They're in a class by themselves. Many images were also completely new to me & very appreciated. Wigal's made it all happen, every aspect, coming totally alive in fresh imaginative ways in dimensions I've never remotely seen explored before.
I'll be exploring it for a long while.

Bill Rabinovitch
rabinart@aol.com
www.Pollocksquared.com

Dazzling unveiling
The author does with words what Pollock did with paint. Don Wigal hurls and drips facts around simple organizational concepts. Comments about an actress' Brooklyn accent sit within a larger skein of Pollock the rebel cowboy. Besides being enjoyable, these slipping-in-from-the-side factoids, they present a continually changing perspective on Pollock. These fresh viewpoints make it easier to understand Pollock as a real person.
It would have been better if the illustrations of Pollock's work were more related to the text. They are very well done, however. You can see the texture of the paint.
Wigal places Pollock, his genius and his personal failings, in the fabric of both his own time and larger questions of science, philosophy, and history. The book sent my head spinning after several pages; it is best read a bit at a time, then savored.

A looking and reading pleasure
What a delight this book is. Pollock's paintings are presented in their historical and cultural context. The text drew me more and more into Pollock's world, making me eager to look, really look, more and more at the spectacular paintings. In the reading and the looking I felt like I was traveling the path of this unique American artist in his process of self-discovery and artistic expression. This book is a real pleasure! I'm going back to read and look again! ... Read more

Product Description
Recounts the stories of some of the world's greatest artists. Focuses on how events in the artist's life influenced their work. Age 5+. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (5)

Authentic and sober analysis
I appreciated the authenticity of the author's encounter with Pollock, and the unselfconscious manner of his writing--meaning: he didn't write to elevate his own perception, but to illuminate Pollock and his rich environs and influences. The author's intelligence enriches our understanding of Pollock, and does so in as timely a manner now as in the 70's when the book was originally written.

Good for its time
This may have been one of the better Pollack books when it came out in 1972, but now I think its main use is for die hards who want every detail.And the details are exhausting:galleries, museums, who what where - too much for me.What I was looking for was more process/personal/mindset stuff, and there is some but you have to go through a lot to get to the little of it there is.I recommend "Jackson Pollack" by Ellen G. Landau.Great reproductions and good text.

Connections
I was wowed reading this energetic, straightforward book, mainly by the many connections made--how Pollocks studies with the great Mexican muralist Orosco who used used/taught a dripping splashing underpainting technique can logically link to how Pollock got splashing and painting on large scale canvases---to the influence of other artists, such as Picasso, on the early works of Jackson Pollock, to the revelation of Pollock's love of and use of found natural forms...

still reading it
I am just beginning to explore pollacks work - book is well laid out

Good review of Jackson Pollock's work, but not personal enou
This book is a thorough review of Jackson Pollock's work and his professional life; however I would have enjoyed it more if there had been more indepth reporting of his personal life.HIs relationship with hiswife, parents and brothers would have made for a more insightful view ofthe artist as a man. ... Read more