Announcing Exclusive Global Representation of Jackson Pollock

Also in October, Kasmin will present a selection of Pollock's early drawings from 1939–1943 at Frieze Masters in London to foreground a pivotal chapter in the artist’s career. Employing Surrealist techniques of automatic drawing, Pollock’s experimental works on paper reveal the psychological force driving his working method in the early 1940s and set the stage for the physiological drips that would define a major cultural breakthrough by the end of the decade. Pollock’s embrace of Carl Jung’s theories of the unconscious was at its strongest at this time, and his artistic output on paper documents a key technical transition in medium leading to a sophisticated mastery of the line. Rapid mark making in multicolored pencil and crayon become detailed linework and crosshatches in pen and ink, illustrating multiple images on a single support. Pollock’s imagery in these years reflects a myriad of formative influences, from Picasso to the Mexican Muralists and indigenous visual cultures. Pollock would soon cover entire surfaces to “veil the imagery,” in his words, giving way to powerful constellations that blur figure and ground as in his landmark painting Mural, commissioned by Peggy Guggenheim in 1943 and now held by the Stanley Museum of Art.

Eric Gleason, Head of Sales at Kasmin, says: "To unite Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock under the same gallery roof once again, and to be able to further strengthen the mission of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, is truly an honor. Jackson Pollock is the most iconic artist of the post-war era, and yet there are substantive elements of his life and oeuvre that remain thoroughly under-recognized. In the coming years, beginning with the revelatory exhibition set to open at the Musée National Picasso–Paris, Kasmin will work with the Foundation and a series of major institutions to develop exhibitions and scholarship that broaden our collective understanding of this titan of modern art."

Born in Wyoming and raised in Arizona and California, Jackson Pollock arrived in New York in 1930 and studied with muralist Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League before working for the WPA Federal Arts Project and in David Alfaro Siqueiros’ workshop over the next decade. In 1945, two years after his first solo exhibition, Pollock married artist Lee Krasner and moved to Springs, NY, where he made many of his landmark paintings on the floor of his barn studio. With crucial support from Krasner, gallerist and collector Peggy Guggenheim, influential critic Clement Greenberg, and others, Pollock’s international recognition would rise to an unprecedented height for an American artist by the 1950s, despite his struggle with alcoholism. After Pollock’s unexpected death in a car accident in 1956, Krasner would continue to champion his art, facilitating major exhibitions and acquisitions of his work.

Among the first Americans to be considered on the same tier as the European modern masters, Pollock paved the way for wider institutional recognition for his Abstract Expressionist contemporaries and his legacy stretches the globe. The work and writing of the next generation of artists, including Allan Kaprow, Donald Judd and the Gutai group in Japan, cemented his wider influence and placed him amid the most influential artists of the 20th century.

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For nearly four decades, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation has supported working artists and cultural organizations internationally. Established in 1985 through the generosity of Lee Krasner, one of the foremost abstract expressionist painters of the 20th century, the Foundation is a leader in providing resources to emerging and established artists. To date, the Foundation has awarded more than 5,100 grants totaling over $90 million in 80 countries. Visit pkf.org to learn more about the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.