The McMullen Museum of Art’s Diana Larsen (left) and Kathryn Martini of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York, inspect Jackson Pollock’s Red Composition following its move from Syracuse to Boston on August 6. The 19-by-24 inch oil on masonite painting is one of more than 150 works that will be on display in Boston College’s Pollock Matters exhibition from September 1 through December 9.
The 1946 painting by Pollock, the famed American Abstract Expressionist artist, is one of many in the exhibition that will be on loan from private collections and museums. It was delivered in a climate-controlled truck and then stored for twenty-four hours before Larsen and Martini opened the crate.
Consulting a report that chronicles the painting’s condition, Larsen and Martini examined the work for any new chips, cracks, or other signs of wear. The work was unaltered, they agreed.
Red Composition is considered one of Pollock’s transitional paintings, created with both a brushed and poured paint. It is one of several known Pollocks that will be part of the exhibition. The exhibition, which explores the personal and artistic interrelationship between Pollock and noted Swiss-born photographer and graphic designer Herbert Matter, will also feature works by Matter, Mercedes Matter, Lee Krasner, Hans Hofmann, and Alexander Calder.
Pollock Matters also puts on public view for the first time a group of small dripped paintings labeled “Jackson experimental works” by Herbert Matter. These were discovered in 2002 by Matter’s son in a storage facility belonging to his late father.