''Mural'' is a large painting by American artist

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...

. Although signed and dated 1943, the signature and date were not added until 1947, and the work was probably completed around the fall of 1943. It was made with oil paint (and an off-white water-based paint) on linen, and is Pollock's largest canvas, measuring . The work was commissioned by

Peggy Guggenheim Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim ( ; August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) was an American art collector, bohemian and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down with t ...

for the long entrance hall of her townhouse at 155 East 61st Street in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The work marks an important transitional moment in Pollock's artistic career, from his earlier works of surrealist abstraction towards action painting. It has been held by the University of Iowa Museum of Art since 1951.

Background

In 1943, Pollock had recently come to the end of a period working for the

Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...

, and was working at the

Museum of Non-Objective Painting The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously ex ...

(later the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

). The talent displayed by his small early paintings was recognized by Howard Putzel, who introduced him to Guggenheim. She was an art collector and dealer, and Pollock signed a contract with her gallery in July 1943 under which he would be paid $150 per month as a retainer, to be set against any proceeds from the sale of his artworks. ''Mural'' was Pollock's first commission. Guggenheim first considered asking for a mural to be painted on the wall, but

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

suggested that it should be painted on canvas so it could be moved. Guggenheim bought an oversize canvas of Belgian linen and gave it to Pollock, but otherwise gave him no direction or instructions, and Pollock was simply asked to paint whatever he wished. A wall had to be removed to allow the large canvas to be installed. The mural was intended to be completed before a planned exhibition of his works opening in November 1943, but according to Lee Krasner, he continued to stare at a blank canvas, saying he was " blocked". Eventually, it was conventionally said, around 1 January 1944, he began frenetic work, completing the entire work in one day. It appears that in reality the painting was finished earlier than that and was not done in one day. Francis O'Connor's research found that Pollock sent a letter in January 1944 telling his brother, Frank, “I painted quite a large painting for Miss Guggenheim during the summer—8 feet x 20 feet. It was grand fun,”. Another letter from Peggy Guggenheim on 12 November 1943 to a friend, in which she describes: "We had a party for the new genius Jackson Pollock; who is having a show here now. He painted a 20 foot mural in my house in the entrance. Everyone likes it nearly except Kenneth eferring to another tenant Rather bad luck on him as he has to see it every time he goes in and out . . ." Investigations applied during Mural’s recent stints in the Museum of Modern Art and Getty conservation labs validate O’Connor’s documentary research, further disproving the legend through technical means. The Getty conservators conclude definitively that “rapid work is not the case here, as there are many areas of dried oil paint evident under subsequent layers.” Scientific analyses of minute samples of paint, they explain, confirm this as well.

Description

''Mural'' is a largely abstract work with the suggestion of several human figures walking, or possibly birds, or letters and numbers, in broad swirls of black and white. It combines influences from artists such as Thomas Hart Benton,

Albert Pinkham Ryder Albert Pinkham Ryder (March 19, 1847 – March 28, 1917) was an American painter best known for his poetic and moody allegorical works and seascapes, as well as his eccentric personality. While his art shared an emphasis on subtle variations of ...

and

El Greco Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos ( el, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco ("The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El G ...

, and Mexican mural artists such as

David Alfaro Siqueiros David Alfaro Siqueiros (born José de Jesús Alfaro Siqueiros; December 29, 1896 – January 6, 1974) was a Mexican social realist painter, best known for his large public murals using the latest in equipment, materials and technique. Along with ...

Painting technique

The painting was investigated by the scientists of the

Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fe ...

and the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

around 2012. Pollock employed

cerulean blue Cerulean (), also spelled caerulean, is a shade of blue ranging between azure and a darker sky blue. The first recorded use of ''cerulean'' as a colour name in English was in 1590. The word is derived from the Latin word '' caeruleus'', "da ...

cadmium yellow Cadmium pigments are a class of pigments that contain cadmium. Most of the cadmium produced worldwide has been for use in rechargeable nickel–cadmium batteries, which have been replaced by other rechargeable nickel-chemistry cell varieties ...

vermilion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color, color family, and pigment most often made, since ancient history, antiquity until the 19th century, from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide, which is toxic) and its correspondi ...

, and umber, with touches of phthalocyanine green and blue mixed in oil and a

casein Casein ( , from Latin ''caseus'' "cheese") is a family of related phosphoproteins (CSN1S1, αS1, aS2, CSN2, β, K-casein, κ) that are commonly found in mammalian milk, comprising about 80% of the proteins in cow's milk and between 20% and 60% of ...

household paint.Jackson Pollock, Mural, ColourLex
/ref> Most of the paint was applied with a brush, but some appears to have been splashed on.

Reception

The importance of ''Mural'' was recognized immediately. The art critic Clement Greenberg wrote: "I took one look at it and I thought, 'Now that's great art,' and I knew Jackson was the greatest painter this country had produced." After Guggenheim moved to Venice in 1947, she arranged with Lester Longman to donate the work to the

. It was shipped to Iowa in 1951, where it is still held by the University of Iowa Museum of Art.

Conservation

The condition of the work had deteriorated by the 1970s, with the canvas sagging due to a weak stretcher and paint starting to flake off. The

relined the painting in 1973, adding a second canvas with a wax adhesive, and also replacing the stretcher and varnishing the surface to stabilise the paint. The painting was sent to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles for 18 months from 2012 to 2014 to be fully conserved. The varnish was removed, and the stretcher was replaced again, this time with a curved stretcher that respects the sagged shape of the canvas. This conservation work revealed several layers of dried oil paints, without the distinct colours being swirled together, suggest that the work was not in fact completed in one day as had previously been thought, but rather was completed over a period of weeks, and was left to dry for several days between each session. However, the use of a quicker-drying white water-based

house paint to add finishing touches to the upper layer suggests the painting may have been completed in hurry. Almost all of the drips of the thickly-applied paint flow in one direction, indicating that the work was mostly painted in an upright position with a brush. However, thin strands of pink indicate that some paint was applied using Pollock's famous "

drip Drip or DRIP may refer to: * Mesomycetozoea, a class of eukaryotes also known as the DRIP clade * Drip gas, natural gas condensate * Drip irrigation, in agriculture and gardening * Dripping liquid * Drip email (campaign), the process of automati ...

" action painting technique, in which the medium is laid horizontally on the floor. After the exhibition of Mural at the J. Paul Getty Museum, the painting was transported to the Sioux City Art Center in Iowa for a nine-month exhibition that concluded in April 2015. From there, the restored painting was exhibited at the

Peggy Guggenheim Museum The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is an art museum on the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro ''sestiere'' of Venice, Italy. It is one of the most visited attractions in Venice. The collection is housed in the , an 18th-century palace, which was the home ...

in Venice in 2015. Its value was estimated in 2016 at around $140 million. It was exhibited at the Columbia Museum of Art in 2019, and then at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 2019-2020.

References

Jackson Pollock's ''Mural''
Getty Museum
''Mural''
University of Iowa Museum of Art.
Jackson Pollock, ''Mural''
Khan Academy
The Myth of Jackson Pollock, Peggy Guggenheim, and the Masterpiece Created in One Night
Artsy Editorial, Abigail Cain, 12 September 2016
''Jackson Pollock's Mural, Energy Made Visible''
David Anfam, Thames & Hudson
Jackson Pollock, the one-man tornado who spattered his way to fame
''The Guardian'', Jonathan Jones, 24 April 2015

Peggy Guggenheim Collection, April 23 – November 16, 2015
''Mural'', 1943 by Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock MuralJackson Pollock Mural, ColourLex
{{Jackson Pollock 1943 paintings Paintings by Jackson Pollock Abstract expressionism