Michael Patrick Brady

This weekend, the McMullen Museum at Boston College opened Pollock Matters, an exhibition detailing the relationship between Jackson Pollock and photographer and graphic designer Herbert Matter. The exhibition culminates with a display of around 20 newly discovered works alleged to be Pollock experimentations, which had been packaged and forgotten in Matters personal archives until his son came across them.

It was an excellent exhibit, touching on not only Pollock's work (which is clearly the big draw here), but the exceptional work of Matter, his wife Mercedes, and Pollock's wife Lee Krasner, across a variety of styles and mediums. There were also a few pleasant surprises with regard to abstract expressionism's relationship to "modern" and "experimental" music.

Works of Calder

As soon as I walked in, I heard from across the room what was instantly recognizable as the prepared piano and drums of John Cage. The McMullin Museum was showing Works of Calder, a short 20-minute film directed by Herbert Matter on which Pollock served as a production assistant. Featuring narration by Burgess Meredith (yes, The Penguin was into the avant-garde! The monocle gives it away) and the score by Cage, Works of Calder is a hypnotic view of the art of Alexander Calder, the man who invented the mobile.

Until this point, I had never considered that somebody had to invent the mobile. I suppose because it features so heavily in the early days of our lives, our brains simply file the mobile away as something that is simply 'there' from the beginning. Works of Calder attempts to capture Calder's mode of operation, and is separated into three distinct parts: part one concerns natural forms, swimming jellyfish and waves crashing onto the beach, all rhythmic and periodic motions that inform Calder's work; part two is a short vignette in which Calder himself appears, welcoming a young boy into his workshop which is replete with toys and sculptures, as Meredith narrates the scene in a vague, poetic manner; part three is something like a "beyond the infinite" section, where actual examples of Calder's sculpting are seen in action, up close. The spinning gyres of his mobiles are emphasized by Matter's direction, and the swirling art truly demands focus and attention.

For an avant-garde film, it's remarkably captivating, sitting somewhere between a nature documentary and a virtual walk through an artist's mind. Cage's music is great, and if you sign up for a no-strings attached Rhapsody account, you can listen to it for free. Below, I'm enclosing the first "prepared piano" section from Cage's Works of Calder.

Are They or Aren't They?

As for the alleged Pollock paintings… I don't really buy it. Some of them are quite nice, but the pieces are extremely small (the exhibition admits they're small compared to the known minimal boundaries of Pollock's dimensions) and a few look lazy and uninteresting. One of the pieces, a larger splash portrait in red and black is really stunning, however. Compared to the one "real" Pollock they have on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts, the differences in scale and complexity seem apparent.

Pollock Matters at the McMullen Museum of Boston College

The exhibit runs until December 9th. Try and go on a day where they're not having a football game, as it can get pretty hectic on campus. It's a quick run-through, but definitely worth it, not just for Works of Calder, but also for the mystery surrounding the disputed Pollock pieces.

MP3: John Cage - Works of Calder (Prepared Piano)