Jackson Pollock comes to Tokyo

It's not often that you get to see retrospective exhibitions of major Western artists in Japan, which I would guess is mainly due to the expense and the logistics of transporting the art work over long distances. So I was very pleased to get the chance to see the Jackson Pollock retrospective currently at the National Museum of Modern Art and running till May 6th. Pollock, for those who don't know, was a major American artist of the 20th century and part of the Abstract Impressionist movement. His most famous paintings are easily idetifiable by his unique drip painting technique. He would often use household enamel paint and drip or pour paint onto a flat canvas, gradually building up web-like layers of colour.

I've seen Pollock's largest paintings on show in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. None of these paintings are in the Tokyo exhibition, but they have nevertheless gathered an impressive selection of his work from all over the world, including a beautiful large painting lent, surprisingly, by a museum in Tehran.

The show is very nicely laid out and there's a good selection of paintings from all stages of his career, as well as drawings, prints and film footage of the artist in action. Immediately as you leave the exhibition there is a reconstruction of his studio with it's paint-splattered wooden floor, which you can walk around on. Also on display here are some artifacts such as a human skull, which I assume were his own possessions.

There is also the inevitable gift shop selling Jackson Pollock chocolate Macadamia nuts and Jackson Pollock bottles of wine (maybe an irony for an artist who was a life-long alcoholic and died in a booze-fueled car accident.)