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Overview
Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) not only put American art on the map with his famous "drip paintings," he also served as an inspiration for the character of Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire—the role that made Marlon Brando famous. Like Brando, Pollock became an icon of rebellion in 1950s America, and the brooding, defiant persona captured in photographs of the artist contributed to his celebrity almost as much as his notorious paintings did. In the years since his death in a drunken car crash, Pollock's hold on the public imagination has only increased. He has become an enduring symbol of the tormented artist—our American van Gogh.
In this highly engaging book, Evelyn Toynton examines Pollock's itinerant and poverty-stricken childhood in the West, his encounters with contemporary art in Depression-era New York, and his years in the run-down Long Island fishing village that, ironically, was transformed into a fashionable resort by his presence. Placing the artist in the context of his time, Toynton also illuminates the fierce controversies that swirled around his work and that continue to do so. Pollock's paintings captured the sense of freedom and infinite possibility unique to the American experience, and his life was both an American rags-to-riches story and a darker tale of the price paid for celebrity, American style.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Journalist and novelist Toynton (The Oriental Wife) lends her multifarious talent to the story of the turbulent life of iconic artist Jackson Pollock. A veritable authority on the lives of Pollock and Lee Krasner, few are better suited to pen such a quotable and inspired contemporary portrait, and Toynton's ability to combine sweeping references with didactic narrative separates this account from the stacks of literature on Pollock. Following a rough upbringing and early alcohol-fuelled exploits, Pollock relocated to New York, where his eminent "drip" took shape (though "he also splattered, splashed, and hurled"). The post-war avant-garde in America—patriotic but disenchanted—chose to express their "interior mental states" in a more abstract rather than "socially conscious" medium. With mixed results and divided critical opinion, the "dangerous and sexy" Pollock finally broke through at the 1943 "Art of This Century" show. His spontaneous production allowed Pollock to pave the way for contemporaries like de Kooning, Kline, and Rothko; though commercial success for Pollock was fleeting and fame did him no favors. Toynton psychologically analyzes Pollock's enigmatic persona—he was shy when sober, brash and egotistically articulate when drunk—and the nurturing role that Krasner came to fill in his life, even after he turned into the Greenwich Village idiot. Toynton touches on his demise, but justifiably applies greater focus to Pollock's "posthumous fame" brought about by Krasner's philanthropy and perspicacity and which has cemented his legacy. B&W photos. (Jan.)Washington Post
There was no shortage of aggression and nihilism in Pollock’s short life . . . Toynton ably chronicles Pollock’s gambol over the edge.—Justin Moyer, Washington Post— Justin Moyer