Restoration of “Alchemy” reveals the truth about Jackson Pollock

It often happens that a restoration offers the occasion for a debate. Every time that an important artwork goes through a process of cleaning, for instance, the debate comes about between those who see in restoration an opportunity at all costs and those who, on the contrary, wouldn’t touch the artwork thus leaving on it the signs of the times. However, beyond ideological standpoints, one of the most important Jackson Pollock’s artworks which has recently undergone a major work of analysis and conservation gives us the opportunity to reflect upon the real benefits of restoration. The work at issue is Alchemy (1947), the first painting Jackson Pollock executed with the dripping-technique. The restoration, which lasted one year, was carried out by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, in Florence, a global leader in the field of art restoration. The artwork is now on show in Venice, at the Peggy Guggenheim collection (until 6th April).

According to Luciano Pensabene, curator of the Peggy Guggenheim collection, who coordinated the studies and carried out the cleaning of the painting, the restoration works unveiled many unknown details, above all with regards to the colours used by the artist.

This masterpiece, after being exhibited for over thirty years in Penny Guggenheim’s house in Venice without any protective glass, was spoiled by particulates, air pollutants, and the dust which by depositing on it altered its original features. Many critics, referring to Alchemy, would talk about a painting whose general aspect was rather greyish. Instead, the restoration work has allowed to discover a palette of 19 colours, some of those extremely bright. There is no shortage of curiosities. For example, Alchemy has been realised by assembling a table-cloth (and not a canvas) on the loom belonging to Jackson Pollocks’ mother.

So what does this restoration work convey to people who are not particularly interested in technical matters, or anecdotes, but instead in the deepest meaning of a work of art? Well, the answer is just one, but of extreme importance. As Luciano Pensabene stated, by analyzing the painting through a high-power microscope, it appears that Jackson Pollock has directed his work as a conductor leads his orchestra. Essentially, you can notice in the painting counterpoints and symmetries that would have been impossible to achieve without any control, especially in the case of such a big canvas. Alchemy is thus the perfect union of intuition and rationality. It isn’t simply the result of automatism and impulses, as it has often been described. Imbued with Jungian ideals and shamanism, the painter undoubtedly looked into practices to express subconscious but, at the same time, he had also very clear in mind the general outline of the painting. Hence, every detail has been contemplated and intentionally planned.

This discovery seems to confirm the subtlest intuitions of critic Clement Greenberg, the closest one to Jackson Pollock, who encouraged to distinguish a successful dripping from a less successful one by paying attention to the gestalt architecture of the general composition.

In other words, the critic asserted that only the drippings which let show through an underlying plan were indeed the “good” ones. Moreover, the discovery of Jackson Pollock’s intentionality seems to support those who suggested that his painting could actually be studied by applying the Fractal theory.

Perhaps, at this point, the lovers of romantic stories will be slightly disappointed, yet these findings can’t help but increase the value of Jackson Pollock’s artistic talent.

Nevertheless, for a long time, despite the intuitions of some detached observers, Jackson Pollock’s dripping (together with the action painting in general, of other artists too) have been represented by the critic, the publishing (and the cinema industry) as the fruit of artistic genius. The artwork was considered as the unconscious projection of the artist’s inner world, but seldom was the rational intention of the artist regarded as the bearing wall of this artistic process. If this perception has contributed in the birth, growth and indeed fortune of the “myth” of Jackson Pollock, on the other hand it has certainly harmed the true understanding of his art.

November 12, 2019