Abstraction on a massive scale

Mural: Jackson Pollock | Katharina Grosse at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, showcases the largest painting Jackson Pollock ever made, Mural (1943) alongside a newly commissioned large-scale work by contemporary German painter Katharina Grosse.at nearly 20 feet wide and eight feet tall, Pollock’s Mural is recognized as one of the pivotal achievements of his career, with bold, rhythmic brushstrokes and the beginnings of the artist’s signature drip technique. Since the late 1990s, Grosse has used an industrial paint-sprayer to apply swaths of color to a variety of surfaces to produce fascinating works. Pairing these two artists’ work side by side allows viewers to explore how they transformed painting through their innovative styles and techniques.

The exhibition runs through February 23, 2020.

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), Mural (detail), 1943. Oil and casein on canvas. The University of Iowa Museum of Art, gift of Peggy Guggenheim, 1959.6. © 2019 The Pollock-krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.