How did Jackson Pollock become a cult figure for the Beat Generation? And what caused his reputation to continue to soar? This compelling and original Abrams classic locates the man and the artist in the continuum of his times, recreating the social and cultural milieu of New York in the 1940s and 1950s. Pollock's early years are chronicled, from his birth in the Wild West town of Cody, Wyoming in 1912 through his prophetically troubled school years marked by repeated expulsions, to his arrival in New York and period of rewarding study with Thomas Hart Benton, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Stanley William Hayter. Withdrawn, abrasive and often drunk, Pollock nevertheless attracted many other mentors; John Graham, the Russian-born artist whose theories were pivotal to the Abstract Expressionists; the French Surrealist emigres who arrived during World War II; two highly supportive Jungian analysts; and perhaps most important of all, Lee Krasner, a fellow artist (and later his wife), whose knowledge of art-world thinking and whose conviction of Pollock's genius were essential to his development. With extensive knowledge of Pollock's habits (much of it gained through interviews), his reading, his conversation and the exhibitions he visited, the author retraces many of the far-flung sources of Pollock's work-African sculpture; North American totems; the Mexican gods of Siqueiros, Orozco and Tamayo; arcane texts favoured by the Surrealists; and Egyptian necrology. A wealth of comparative photographs that illustrates paintings by artists Pollock admired further explains the work of this complex, tragic, and immeasurably influential figure.

Reviews

The role of art historian as biographer is beset with contradictions, an artist's life and art being neither mutually exclusive nor synonymous. Balanced in his life on the edge of destruction and in his art on that of innovation, Pollock mirrored a chaotic world, one in which humans seemed to have lost control. Less gossipy than Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith's Jackson Pollock ( LJ 8/89), this book treats Pollock's personal life, creative work, and cultural milieu as discrete elements that produce a gradually developing image, not always in accord with the public's view of Pollock as rebellious cowboy or counterculture loner. Pollock was the major force behind the transfer of avant-garde art from France to the United States and the American idiom in which it was expressed. This ``American Prometheus'' is well served by this elegantly illustrated, carefully annotated, and well-written work. Recommended for all art libraries and large general collections.-- Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

In a remarkably fresh look at Pollock's life (1912-1956) and work, Landau presents this driven artist as a Promethean rebel who exemplified the American traits of brashness, persistence and outward lack of sophistication, combined with inner primitivism and unbridled daring. An intensely self-conscious youth from Cody, Wyo., Pollock went to New York where mentor Thomas Hart Benton taught him rhythmical composition. The symbol-laden drawings Pollock brought to his Jungian therapist pointed him on a quest of psychic regeneration. His friend John Graham, a Polish-born modernist artist, exposed him to the occult, yoga and African, Oceanic and Egyptian art. He drew mental energy from strong-willed painter Lee Krasner, who became his wife. Landau, art history professor at Case Western Reserve University, unearths new material and re-evaluates the old in this stunningly illustrated, engrossing biographical-critical study. (Nov.)