Pollock Show Goes Beyond Controversy

“Pollock Matters,” on display at Boston College’s McMullen Museum of Art though Dec. 9, is a romance as much as it is a mystery.

Bringing to light the story of a friendship between four artists, paired into two married couples—Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, and Herbert and Mercedes Matter—the show illustrates the intersection of their lives through letters, paintings, and photographs, a wide-ranging collection of relics that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Of course, it’s the show’s overarching whodunit—the still-unanswered question of the authenticity of a series of possible Pollocks on display—that has brought the most buzz to the show.

But to the show’s credit, the debate over the painting series doesn’t upstage the exposition of the artists’ hitherto unexplored relationship.

CATALOGING CONTROVERSY

Curated by Ellen Landau in collaboration with Claude Cernuschi, “Pollock Matters” is the first exhibition to display the paintings discovered in 2002 by Alex Matter, son of Herbert and Mercedes, and attributed to Pollock.

The show leaves the puzzle unfinished—the exhibition and its impressive, engaging companion catalogue don’t provide any easy answers. And with good reason: there aren’t any.

Instead, the exhibition presents the evidence for both sides of the debate clearly and cogently.

Making sense of a complex tangle of mathematical fractals and the chemical structure and copyright of pigments and paints, the essays in the catalogue lay out the discussions in something approaching layman’s terms, outlining the research and analysis behind the intrigue.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

The exhibition is separated into two sections. In the upper portion of the show, anecdotes, letters, and images all contribute to the viewer’s understanding of the evolution of a friendship between the two couples, as well as with Krasner and Matter’s teacher Hans Hofmann and Alex Matter’s godfather and namesake, Alexander Calder.

Presented chronologically, “Pollock Matters” begins with Lee Krasner and Mercedes Matter’s first acquaintance (they met while being arrested at a 1936 protest rally).

A disparate but telling mixture of objects and art are on hand for illustrative purposes. Case in point: drawings and paintings they produced under the same teacher are presented alongside a wedding album.

Meanwhile, the uninitiated are introduced to examples of Herbert Matter’s work as a graphic designer, including ads in Vogue. But his more esoteric work is on display as well, including a video he produced and directed to highlight Calder’s work, set to the music of John Cage.

With the introductions complete, the exhibition delves further into the interplay between Pollock and Matter’s work downstairs.

MAKING JACK THE DRIPPER

Perhaps even more academically engaging than the issue of the authenticity of the paintings in question is the importance of Matter and his work in Pollock’s development, particularly with reference to the genesis of Pollock’s famed drip-painting technique.

The chronology of their relationship is revealing. Pollock completed his first preliminary drip-paintings the same year Matter showed photos produced with ink and glycerin drip techniques. Pollock abandoned drip paintings following Matter’s departure for California, only to begin again when Matter returned to the East Coast. Pollock sent an early drip painting to the Matters as a belated wedding present.

Although these events may have been mere coincidences, the visual evidence strongly suggests that the genesis of the “death of the easel painting” owes much to Matter.

In the final room of the show, the controversial paintings themselves are relatively small. Falling in what is described as “the inner realm” of size for Pollock paintings, most are not much larger than a piece of 8.5x11-inch printer paper—a factor that has, itself, played a role in the dispute.

In fact, in the catalogue, one essay is dedicated specifically to the issue of the size of the paintings in relation to the likelihood of their authenticity. Designated “Jackson experimental” on the wrapper in which they were found, and not attributed to any artist on their museum labels, the paintings are uneven in quality and texture, but some of the disputed paintings manage to be little marvels in miniature, works that are engaging completely independent of their origin.

“Pollock Matters” is exactly what a show at a college museum should be. Its investigative nature and interdisciplinary approach beautifully fulfill the aims of a research institution, in this instance exploring contemporary questions in modern art to great effect.

—Staff writer Anna K. Barnet can be reached at abarnet@fas.harvard.edu.