Nowhere is the complex and destructive painter Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) revealed with more compassion and insight than in this exemplary biography. Friedman, a friend of Pollock's and active in the art world, shows him to be a brilliant man tormented by his relationship to his family; an artist who worked hard through years of poverty to achieve his controversial painting technique; the first American painter to gain an international reputation for himself and for what has been variously called Action Painting or Abstract Expressionism; and a man who struggled with alcohol and the tension between gentleness and violence.Newly illustrated with seminal Pollock paintings, this book takes the reader inside the art world of New York during the '40s and '50s, when Action Painting first emerged. Friedman reveals what it meant to Pollock to experience the invasion of his studio and of the very act of painting by the external pressures of shows, reviews, films, dealers, critics, hostile publicity; and how, despite it all, Pollock created many of the most graceful and powerful paintings ever made in America.

Jackson Pollock: Energy Made Visible

FRIEDMAN, B.H.

McGraw=Hill

McGraw-Hill Book Company

"Friedman has captured the excitement of the artist at work--the tortuous groping towards an idea and the sense of fulfillment in its ultimate creation. It is, indeed, a definitive biography. It is documented. It is solid. But best of all, it is lively."--Chicago Tribune Nowhere is the complex and destructive painter Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) revealed with more compassion and insight than in this exemplary biography. Friedman, a friend of Pollock's and active in the art world, shows him to be a brilliant man tormented by his relationship to his family; an artist who worked hard through years of poverty to achieve his controversial painting technique; the first American painter to gain an international reputation for himself and for what has been variously called Action Painting or Abstract Expressionism; and a man who struggled with alcohol and the tension between gentleness and violence. Newly illustrated with seminal Pollock paintings, this book takes the reader inside the art world of New York during the '40s and '50s, when Action Painting first emerged. Friedman reveals what it meant to Pollock to experience the invasion of his studio and of the very act of painting by the external pressures of shows, reviews, films, dealers, critics, hostile publicity; and how, despite it all, Pollock created many of the most graceful and powerful paintings ever made in America.

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Grand Central Publishing

The polygamist: A novel

Literature & Fiction

United States

Little,Brown

Almost a Life

Contemporary

The Viking Press

Alfonso Ossorio

Harry N.Abrams, Inc.

Museum

Fc2/Black Ice Books

Fiction Collective 2

Coming Close is what the author calls "alternative autobiographies"—four stories, each dealing freely with different, though sometimes overlapping, material through which we understand the complexity of a man's life.   In the previously unpublished novella "Watching Father Die," a son sees his father die—both as physical man and psychological symbol. At the same time, the son watches himself die, and cool rage balances warm compassion.   "Drinking Smoke," and "Moving in Place," have both been published in prestigious literary magazines—New American Review and The Hudson Review. Like the novella, each is concerned with an obsession. "Moving in Place" received a Fels Award of the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines as one of the five best stories of the year. Finally, "Choosing a Name" focuses on how a man who is nameless, though precisely identified in the first three stories, comes close to being B.H. Friedman. Altogether, the four stories reinforce one another to become a coherent, multi-faceted self-portrait.

Coming Close

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Books by FRIEDMAN, B.H.