Page 60 - Contemporary Art and Old Masters

The current presentation is the first time this work has
been on view in New York in more than 20 years and
marks the painting’s debut at the Guggenheim Museum.
Along with Mural, the exhibition features three additional
AWAY FROM THE EASEL: works by Pollock.
JACKSON POLLOCK’S MURAL
Nearly 20 feet wide by 8 feet tall, Mural is Pollock’s
New York - The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
largest painting. The work was a breakthrough for the
Guggenheim Presents Focused Exhibition on Seminal
artist and marked a transformational year. During his
Work by Jackson Pollock, Opening October 3
brief time working as a custodian and preparator at
New York’s Museum of Non-Objective Painting (the first
inception of the Guggenheim Museum) in 1943, Peggy
Guggenheim gave him a contract with a monthly stipend
As part of the public reopening of the Solomon R.
that permitted him to paint full-time. Her early support of
Guggenheim Museum on October 3, the museum presents
Pollock’s work arguably established his career. Following
Away from the Easel: Jackson Pollock’s Mural, a focused
the commissioning of this painting, the artist had his first
exhibition dedicated to the first monumental painting by
solo exhibition, held at Guggenheim’s museum-gallery,
American artist Jackson Pollock (1912–1956). Commissioned
Art of This Century, later that year. Though he was not
by visionary collector and dealer Peggy Guggenheim for her
yet working consistently on the floor and from all sides,
Manhattan home in the summer of 1943, during a pivotal
it was during this time that Pollock began to challenge
moment in the evolution of Pollock’s artistic style, Mural
traditional notions of painting, combining the technique
was completed by the end of that same year.
Installation View: Away from the Easel: Jackson Pollock’s Mural, Solomon
R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2021.
Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

60 WORLD of ART