Jackson Pollock: A Biography [Paperback]

Deborah Solomon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 26, 2001

Deborah Solomon's biography sets Jackson Pollock in his time and portrays him as a shy, often withdrawn person, full of insecurities and self-doubts, and frequently unable to express himself about his art or its meaning. Solomon interviewed two hundred people who knew Pollock and his work and she has drawn extensively on Pollock's own writings and other personal papers. She examines the artist's relationships with his family; his wife and fellow artist Lee Krasner; art patron Peggy Guggenheim; the painters Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and many more.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Thomas Hart Benton, famous for his folksy murals, seems an unlikely mentor for an abstract expressionist, yet this engrossing, level-headed biography provides a wonderful glimpse of the shy, rangy Pollock under the tutelage of the tobacco-chewing Missourian in the 1930s. Pollock, we also learn, was ambivalent about his abstract style, at which he arrived after a 16-year search for a vehicle that would accommodate his violent emotions. Solomon, whose first book this is, has unearthed revealing new material: Robert Motherwell's introduction of Pollock to the surrealists in New York in the '40s; Pollock's first exposure to splatter painting in Mexican muralist David Siqueiros's workshop; his encounter with Jungian therapy and experiments with homeopathy. The author analyzes Lee Krasner, Pollock's long-suffering wife, as an important painter in her own rightcontradicting those biographers who maintain that she sacrificed herself to her husband's career. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

"A concisely written biography," said LJ's reviewer of this 1987 volume, which here makes its paperback debut. Solomon is blunt about Pollock's numerous problems both with establishing his style and with alcoholism and declining mental health. A good, manageable biography for art enthusiasts and lay readers alike. (LJ 12/87)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Cooper Square Press; 1st Cooper Square Press Ed edition (June 26, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815411820
• ISBN-13: 978-0815411826
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,051,990 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #49 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Abstract Expressionism

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Escaping the limits of art, May 3, 2011

By 

Edward (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jackson Pollock: A Biography (Paperback)

Art historian Deborah Solomon (she's having a biography of Norman Rockwell published this year) brought out in 1987 this life of the complicated and extremely creative Jackson Pollock. One thing about Solomon: she's serious. It was she who in 2010 hosted an interview at the 92nd Street Y with the comedian/author Steve Martin, who had just written a novel set in the art world. During the program Solomon received a note (on stage!) from the Y administration informing her that the paying audience was restless: why was she asking Martin questions about art, why wasn't she asking him questions about sitcoms and the Oscars? A couple of days later the Y was castigated by Solomon when it offered refunds to its trivia-obsessed subscribers. Anyone expecting a trivial exposé of Pollock's controversial life should probably avoid "Jackson Pollock". This is an earnest biography of the abstract expressionist from his birth in Wyoming in 1912 to his violent death in 1956 on Long Island. An alcoholic, Pollock could be belligerent and cruelly insulting, even to his wife, the artist Lee Krasner; and it was excessive alcohol that caused his death in a car crash at the age of 44. At other times he could be surprisingly meek. When the portable mural he created for Peggy Guggenheim's East Side apartment proved too long, Marcel Duchamp suggested they simply cut off 8", and Pollock didn't explode but calmly acquiesced. (About that famous mural, which is now at the University of Iowa: a recent theory asserts that the totemic figures marching across the canvas are actually stylized letters spelling out Pollock's name.) Pollock was the protégé of Thomas Hart Benton and some of his early paintings show Benton's influence. Later Benton, who was strictly representational, felt estranged from his former pupil and the "drip" paintings, such as "No. 5, 1948", which evidently is now privately owned. Pollock also flirted briefly with Surrealism, creating beauties like the San Francisco MOMA's "Guardians of the Secret". (It should be pointed out that this book is first and foremost a biography, so none of the plates are in color.) The narrative abounds in stories of the Forties and Fifties art world: Stuart Davis loathed Benton's regionalism, saying it was appropriate only for a Fascist state; and when André Breton came to New York for the duration of World War II he didn't conceal his contempt for America's lack of culture, flatly refusing to learn English. But of primary importance is Pollock himself: " ... he did away with recognizable imagery in favor of direct expression ... He turned to abstraction not to define the limits of art but to escape them." The shallow audiences at the Y may be bored by all this, but art enthusiasts will enjoy its frank depiction not only of Pollock's life but of the world in which he worked.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful!, November 28, 2010

By 

TX BBQ Master - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jackson Pollock: A Biography (Paperback)

I had this book overnighted to me for an Art class I am taking. I found this book to be full of wonderful information on Jackson Pollock. This book did a great job of including a lot of information from his childhood as well as his wife, Kasner.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A most critical and detail-filled look, January 9, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jackson Pollock: A Biography (Paperback)

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.