Brooke Tomiello

FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS ANNOUNCES 2012 ARTIST GRANTS
The Foundation for Contemporary Arts has announced the recipients of its 2012 Grants to Artists program. Fourteen unrestricted grants of $25,000 each (a total of $350,000), are to be awarded to artists in the United States and abroad. The grantees are selected by the directors of the foundation and noted members of the arts community from confidential nominations submitted by artists and arts professionals. VISUAL ARTS Daniel Bozhkov, New York, NY; William E. Jones, Los Angeles, CA; Kate Millett, New York, NY_Artforum

heh

NPR THINKS JACKSON POLLOCK IS A CONTROVERSIAL ARTIST by Christopher Knight
It’s 1949 over at National Public Radio, which this weekend aired an astounding segment on its popular program, “All Things Considered,” claiming that Jackson Pollock, the Abstract Expressionist painter universally regarded as among the 20th century’s great artists, is deeply controversial. Pollock died in 1956. The broadcast was in recognition of the centennial of his birth, which fell on Saturday.
“Even a century since his birth, American ‘splatter artist’ Jackson Pollock still provokes heated debate about the very definition of art,” says NPR’s Web version of the story. “Was a man who placed a canvas on the floor and dripped paint straight from the can actually creating a work of art?”
Um, huh? What’s a “splatter artist”? Who is having a “heated debate”? What century are we living in?
The Pollock shtick reminds me of deniers of the Holocaust or global climate change. Virtually no one in the field doubts Pollock’s achievement and significance for the history of Modern art, but one can always find some crank willing to abjure. What is this, National Booboisie Radio?
Wait, it gets worse. The really remarkable feature of the NPR story is that no one in it does renounce Pollock. No one.
Nobody, either in the Web story or in the broadcast, is quoted as expressing any doubt about Pollock’s standing. Nobody takes the negative side in the supposedly raging debate.
Apparently, it’s NPR that’s aghast. Controversy is just asserted — I’m guessing because conflict is supposed to make good radio. The reporter simply worked from a presumption that Pollock’s reputation is in serious doubt, silently recycling the wheezing cliche that Modern art is a hoax, and he asked a curator from the august National Gallery of Art to explain just why this long-dead painter matters.
Speaking of august, the Aug. 8, 1949, issue of Life magazine ran a profusely illustrated, now-famous article that inquired, “Jackson Pollock: Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?” Sure, one could debate the superlative adjective. Sixty years on, however, there’s no serious argument to be had about the hugely influential art.
It’s 2012. Is it too much to ask our national radio service to pay attention?_LATimes

POLLOCK’S LEGEND STILL SPLATTERED ON ART WORLD
Even a century since his birth, American “splatter artist” Jackson Pollock still provokes heated debate about the very definition of art. Was a man who placed a canvas on the floor and dripped paint straight from the can actually creating a work of art? “It’s very hard if you try to build the paint up to this extent with this many colors and not achieve mud,” says National Gallery of Art curator Harry Cooper. “He didn’t achieve mud here — I think he achieved something quite beautiful,” Cooper tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz. “And in the process, he opened up a whole new way of thinking about what a painting could be, how you could make a painting, what it could do in an abstract way.”
The public perception at the time, though, was distinctly different than that of art critics. “In the popular mind, he was Jack the Dripper,” Cooper says. “I think all of those feelings and associations have remained with the work, no matter how many books and how many retrospectives he has.” In 2006, one of Pollock’s works sold for $140 million — the most ever paid for a painting. He remains polarizing, a man whose work is as derided as it is desired.
Born in Cody, Wyo., on Jan. 28, 1912, Paul Jackson Pollock trained under the acclaimed American naturalist Thomas Hart Benton. During that time, Pollock’s paintings were indistinguishable from Benton’s — clear human forms with enhanced curves, as if windblown or carved like riverbeds. Over time, Pollock’s forms would become more surreal, like Picasso’s. Surprisingly, the trademark splatter work doesn’t make an appearance until Pollock’s mid-30s. “In fact, by the end of 1950 and ‘51, he’s not doing the drips anymore,” Cooper says. “He returns to the figure and spends his last years doing something quite different.” Pollock died tragically at the age of 44. After a lifetime struggling with alcoholism, he crashed his car while driving drunk. His death befit the legend that grew around his life. “He was a macho man from Cody, Wyoming,” Cooper says._NPR