黑料不打烊

Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell are two of the most celebrated American painters from the mid-20th century. The exhibition emphasizes the radical innovation of American abstraction in mainstream art by featuring two monumental paintings, Mural and Elegy to the Spanish Republic, No. 126. It explores legends surrounding each work and artist by unpacking fact from fiction.

Mural, Pollock鈥檚 largest-ever canvas, was commissioned in 1943 by famed art collector and dealer Peggy Guggenheim. It established a new direction of massive scale and bold freedom for the movement that came to be known as Abstract Expressionism. Techniques used in Mural foreshadow methods Pollock would later develop in his best-known 鈥減oured鈥� paintings. In 1948 Guggenheim gifted Mural to the University of Iowa and from 2012 to 2014 the painting underwent an immense conservation effort by The Getty in Los Angeles.

One of the most elegant works in the series due to its vastness and thoughtful integration of color, Motherwell鈥檚 Elegy to the Spanish Republic, No. 126 is a unique salute to Pollock. In 1972 it was commissioned by the director of the University of Iowa Museum of Art to hang with and directly respond to Mural鈥檚 larger-than-life size.