Steve Martin

Thomas Learner

Ellen G. Landau

Yvonne Szafran

Alan Phenix

Laura Rivers

Jackson Pollock's (1912–1956) first large-scale painting, Mural, in many ways represents the birth of Pollock, the legend. The controversial artist’s creation of this painting has been recounted in dozens of books and dramatized in the Oscar-winning film Pollock. Rumors—such as it was painted in one alcohol-fueled night and at first didn’t fit the intended space—abound. But never in doubt was that the creation of the painting was pivotal, not only for Pollock but for the Abstract Expressionists who would follow his radical conception of art —“no limits, just edges.” Mural, painted in 1943, was Pollock’s first major commission. It was made for the entrance hall of the Manhattan duplex of Peggy Guggenheim, who donated it to the University of Iowa in the 1950s where it stayed until its 2012 arrival for conservation and study at the Getty Center. This book unveils the findings of that examination, providing a more complete picture of Pollock’s process than ever before. It includes an essay by eminent Pollock scholar Ellen Landau and an introduction by comedian Steve Martin. It accompanies an exhibition of the painting on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from March 11 through June 1, 2014.

The Transitional Moment

Jackson Pollock's Mural

Anne T. Woollett

Maerten van Heemskerck (1498–1574) was one of the most active and inventive Dutch painters of the sixteenth century. Over the course of his long career, he created lively mythological scenes, dramatic altarpieces for guilds, and smaller works for wealthy individuals. Several of his religious paintings were destroyed by Protestant iconoclasts in 1566. One of his extant masterpieces, the Ecce Homo triptych of 1544, once graced the family chapel of Jan van Drenckwaerdt, a wealthy merchant and sheriff, in Dordrecht's Augustinian church. This unusually complete triptych, with its original decorated frame, was brought from the National Museum in Warsaw, Poland, for treatment and study at the J. Paul Getty Museum as part of the Conservation Partnership program. Richly illustrated, the book documents the dramatic process of revealing the brilliance of a sixteenth-century masterpiece, and it sheds light on the artist's technique, iconography, and the role of the altarpiece in the turbulent history of the era. Drama and Devotion accompanies an exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum that opens June 5, 2012.

Heemskerck's Ecce Homo Altarpiece from Warsaw

Drama and Devotion

Alan Phenix

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