Jackson Pollock

August 4, 1987
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.

November 1, 2001
"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)

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