Jackson Pollock: The Irascibles and the New York School

More than fifty years after Peggy Guggenheim's first Venice show in 1950, the legacy of Jackson Pollock returns to Italy in two major retrospectives. Separate shows at Courer, Venice and at the Centro Culturale Candiani in Mestre have brought together works from American and European collections including from the Metropolitan; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Tate Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome. Taken together these two shows trace a parabola from Pollock's early figurative work to the “action paintings” of the Fifties and describe a fresh view of working painters in New York City from late 1930s to mid-1950s. This deluxe hardcover catalog includes both exhibitions: the central figure is Pollock as seen at the Correr's “Jackson Pollock in Venice”, while the Candiani presents his New York School contemporaries in “The Irascibles”, an exhibition that includes work by Lee Krasner, Arshile Gorky, Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt, Adolph Gottlieb, De Kooning, Rothko.