I know this is old news around the Internet, but the reason bloggers enable comments is because we learn from them. In the case of the possible forced Pollock UIMA deaccession (or whatever you want to call it), two commenters have provided far more background to the piece in question (Mural), than I could have possibly given myself having never seen it. I’m reposting the most relevant of their points below with an added thank-you to all of my readers and commenters lately, who have contributed immensely thoughtful and intelligent feedback on the items posted here.
Tom Moody: I spent a lot of time with that painting when it was in MOMA's last big Pollock retro. It's a perfect interweaving of spidery implied figures stopping just short of articulation, swirling arabesque patterns, and molecular energy fields. It's an incredible juggling act to keep so many elements going across such a large surface area and to keep every stroke so fresh and “on.” Jpegs don't do this justice or show the layers within layers of paint that keep your eye engaged when viewing it in person—it is visual music and I do believe it was done in a quick burst of brilliance….
The Hill: Moody is right the value of the piece lies in its formatting the painting logic Pollock was to use later. However, the time of 10 hours remains problematic due to overlays on dried areas. Off record scholars have implied to me that suspicion has it, Pollock may have come back to the work much later in the 50's. I'm not sure if everyone is satisfied w/ its date in terms of Mural's lack of crudeness to other works of the time. Really eye brow raising speculation has it Motherwell might know since he helped paint it w/ Pollock. !!!! Convention buzz.
….I felt that even those who had access to the work, did not value it. And the foot traffic, myself having worked at the Museum, would be on a 10K to one ratio w/ a large Metro Museum. And that's conservative.
Lastly, rumors have it the Mural may have been damaged in the flooding, as it was always hung low (as your photo indicates) and in a sub atrium section of the Iowa Museum. The museum would flood once every 10 years, but this last apparently came much quicker and w/ way more volume.
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Pollock’s Mural tempts the U of Iowa Art Museum since at auction the price would be impossible to turn down. I could see the University’s president stepping in. I don’t see the Des Moines Art Museum being able to come up w/ that kind of cash, so I can’t see the Tyler Greene expose going too far.
No big deal, but I have issue w/ the belief the work was done in a brilliant 10 hour moment, and this adds to Mural’s value. Mural not only anticipates much to happen later w/ black figuration and ‘out of the unconscious’ painting, but it’s also an epileptic summary of Picasso, Miro, Gorky and Masson. However, I put my time in on this work also, not just over the period of one exhibition. I imagined myself painting the thing and I know I couldn’t unless I never stepped back, assuming it was done on wall surface, drank some coffee, thought about it. But this is exciting stuff and one of the complaints levelled at the UIAM was it did not know what it had. So the University of Iowa Museum ought to beat the drum of this work relentlessly or shuttle it off to a Chicago, LA or NYC, but not let it sleep like they do.
Pollock’s Mural tempts the U of Iowa Art Museum since at auction the price would be impossible to turn down. I could see the University’s president stepping in. I don’t see the Des Moines Art Museum being able to come up w/ that kind of cash, so I can’t see the Tyler Greene expose going too far.
No big deal, but I have issue w/ the belief the work was done in a brilliant 10 hour moment, and this adds to Mural’s value. Mural not only anticipates much to happen later w/ black figuration and ‘out of the unconscious’ painting, but it’s also an epileptic summary of Picasso, Miro, Gorky and Masson. However, I put my time in on this work also, not just over the period of one exhibition. I imagined myself painting the thing and I know I couldn’t unless I never stepped back, assuming it was done on wall surface, drank some coffee, thought about it. But this is exciting stuff and one of the complaints levelled at the UIAM was it did not know what it had. So the University of Iowa Museum ought to beat the drum of this work relentlessly or shuttle it off to a Chicago, LA or NYC, but not let it sleep like they do.
I rather like this from Felix Salmon:
“Maybe the critics of a sale should stop thinking in terms of ‘forced deaccessioning’ and start thinking in terms of a great donation by the people of Iowa to the people of America more generally. And as a gesture of thanks I’m sure it would be quite easy to help out the people of Iowa with a couple of hundred million dollars to put towards fixing their flood damage.”
I rather like this from Felix Salmon:
“Maybe the critics of a sale should stop thinking in terms of ‘forced deaccessioning’ and start thinking in terms of a great donation by the people of Iowa to the people of America more generally. And as a gesture of thanks I’m sure it would be quite easy to help out the people of Iowa with a couple of hundred million dollars to put towards fixing their flood damage.”
The “people of Iowa” I don’t think would regard giving up the Pollock as a donation. The people of Iowa are a tolerant lot who welcome strangers as I found out w/ a dead Volvo in a blizzard in December on I35N. They mostly farm and worry about parity for corn/soybeans and how to change inheritance land laws. They r also mostly on line. However, if u were to have the Chicago Institute trade Iowan Grant Wood’s American Gothic classic ptg. for the Pollock Mural, well hitch the soybean buggy to the Steiger and we’ll drive it for you. By the way, Iowa ‘farmers’ speak w/o a cracker barrel twang and mostly have attended Ag school for monoculture development.
The “people of Iowa” I don’t think would regard giving up the Pollock as a donation. The people of Iowa are a tolerant lot who welcome strangers as I found out w/ a dead Volvo in a blizzard in December on I35N. They mostly farm and worry about parity for corn/soybeans and how to change inheritance land laws. They r also mostly on line. However, if u were to have the Chicago Institute trade Iowan Grant Wood’s American Gothic classic ptg. for the Pollock Mural, well hitch the soybean buggy to the Steiger and we’ll drive it for you. By the way, Iowa ‘farmers’ speak w/o a cracker barrel twang and mostly have attended Ag school for monoculture development.
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