Jackson Pollock at Whitechapel
Installation view, Jackson Pollock, Whitechapel Gallery, 1958; Whitechapel Gallery Archive. Photo by Sam Lambert.
As part of my personal 2019 London must see exhibitions list, ‘Staging Jackson Pollock’ was on the agenda last month and I managing to just catch it before it closed at the end of March. This was my first time at Whitechapel Gallery and I was surprised to find that it was quite small in comparison to other galleries I’ve been to, especially one that once staged a retrospective of Jackson Pollocks work.
Like the Video Games exhibition I recently experienced at the V&A, I didn’t look to much into the exhibition and what was on display so I ventured there with limited knowledge on a quest to learn something new. Only thing i did know was that I was going to see a masterpiece from Jackson Pollock, who was at the time of the initial exhibition was already one of the most influential American Abstract Expressionists of the 20th Century and couldn’t wait to see it. I remember viewing some of his work on a trip to Paris in a brief visit to the Pompidou Centre years ago and being surrounded by other works of modern art you can see how his ‘action painting’ style is unique, especially for the late 1940’s and early 50’s when he created them.
Back to the exhibition, it detailed how Whitechapel Gallery Director Bryan Robertson hired architect Trevor Dannatt to create a setting that reflected the nature of, and complimented, Pollocks work. Dannatt’s constructivist design used free standing breeze blocks, a ceiling of suspended fabric and creative lighting to display Pollocks work in a way that would showcase how creating a setting for displaying artwork can create an engaging and immersive environment. The original exhibition at the time was a example of how exhibition architecture was revolutionised by the art it was designed to display. It was interesting to read about the process of creating an exhibition, the ideas surrounding it, and the conversations between key organisers. The magnitude of the event at the time could be seen in newspaper clippings and articles written about the exhibition was garnered so much popularity and interest.
The most interesting pieces of information I took away from the exhibition was that the program responsible for the organising Pollocks works (MoMA’s International Programme) was rumoured to be funded by the CIA to spread forms of artistic freedom of expression in an attempt to counter the Soviet Union’s ideology on Communism. This freedom of expression was embodied in the exhibition by Pollocks masterpiece, Summertime 9A. It was the only piece of of his work they had on display which made as return to the gallery from the original exhibition over 60 years ago.
Summertime 9A, Jackson Pollock, 1948
Its always different viewing artwork on a screen than it is in its original form face to face. So when I scanned along the painting, I could appreciate the detail and the artistic expression of how he poured, flicked and dripped paint onto the canvas to create his unique and possibly the most recognisable style in modern art. I found this exhibition more engaging than some of the exhibitions I’ve been to previously as most exhibits focus around the art itself however is was refreshing to attend an exhibition about an exhibition, and that the exhibition itself was the artwork.