Becoming Jackson Pollock (The Wall Street Journal)

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[[{“type”:“media”,“view_mode”:“media_large”,“fid”:null,“attributes”:{“class”:“media-image alignright size-full wp-image-1615”,“typeof”:“foaf:Image”,“style”:“”,“width”:“100”,“height”:“100”,“alt”:“Wall Street Journal”}}]]The Hood Museum of Art’s “Men of Fire: José Clemente Orozco and Jackson Pollockexhibition brings together the drawings and paintings of two of the most famous artists of the twentieth century. A review written by Lee Rosenbaum of The Wall Street Journal details the exhibit, noting its importance in featuring a “crucial period” in Pollock’s career.

Rosenbaum writes, “Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum of Art, under its new director, Michael Taylor (former curator of modern art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art), has seized the moment by hastily assembling an absorbing dossier exhibition focusing on a crucial period in Pollock’s trajectory from representational landscapes, heavily influenced by his teacher Thomas Hart Benton, to his signature abstract masterpieces that, according to popular and Hollywood legend, seemed to spring out of nowhere.”

The review includes the history of Pollock’s connection to José Clemente Orozco and to Dartmouth. Rosenbaum explains, “To appreciate “Men of Fire,” you need to start not in Dartmouth’s art museum but in its Baker Library. That’s where the 24-year-old Pollock made pilgrimage in 1936 to see Orozco’s 24-panel mural “The Epic of American Civilization” (1932-34), a sweeping history of the Mexican people.” She adds, “Its darkly symbolic and ritualistic content made a strong impression on the younger artist.”

Read the full story, published 5/2/12 by The Wall Street Journal.

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