Monday, February 19, 2007

Latest on the "Matter Pollocks"

Geoff Edgers had an update in this weekend's Boston Globe. They're going to be exhibited at Boston College's McMullen Museum of Art in September, and the show will then travel to the Everson Museum in Syracuse. It will include about 100 works and will "explore the relationship of Pollock, his wife, Lee Krasner, and the Matters." In addition to paintings by Pollock and Krasner, there will be photographs by Herbert Matter and paintings by his wife, Mercedes. The Matter pictures will be exhibited in a separate room labeled "problems for study."

Interestingly, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, which owns the copyrights in Pollock's work, has said it will not allow the museums to reproduce any of his work in connection with the exhibition.

The McMullen has a page up at its website previewing the show here. A press release is here.

JL at the excellent Modern Kicks says "it sounds like BC is trying to do things right here":

"This is the best way to go. The McMullen is going to have to work hard not to get used in the process, but we all want to see these paintings, don't we? And to do so in the context of other work, Pollocks and those around him or these paintings. I understand the suspicions the paintings raise, and it seems clear that no one at BC wants to be seen as putting their reputation behind their authenticity. But we still want to have the chance to look and decide for ourselves. And while I understand the refusal of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation to cooperate and allow reproductions of undoubted paintings by either of those artists in the McMullen's catalog or exhibition, it's not really the best outcome from the perspective of an interested outsider. I suppose if one's of the opinion that these are fakes, even if not deliberate ones, there's no need for any of this. But I'd still like to see them."