NEW YORK, NY.- Jackson Pollock is recognized as one of the greatest artists of the Post-War era. Though his work includes some of the most treasured objects in museums and private art collections worldwide, there remains a general misunderstanding regarding how Pollock approached the framing of his own work. There is evidence that Pollock did not always prefer to show his paintings without frames, or in narrow strip frames as is often assumed. A broad, painted frame is visible in several photos taken in his studio in Springs, New York (now the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center).
In an effort to better understand the artist’s attitude toward framing,
Eli Wilner & Company conferred with Helen A. Harrison, Director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center. Harrison indicated that there is documentation of instances when the artist framed his works himself.
In 1951 Pollock hired attorney Gerard Weinstock to write his will, with the agreement that a painting would be given as payment. The 12 x 20 inch painting, dating to the late 1930s, was donated to the Pollock-Krasner House in 2001 by Mr. Weinstock’s widow. With the painting, Mrs. Weinstock included this recollection, "He brought over a portfolio of manageable-sized paintings and we selected one. …The following summer he presented it to us in a simple wooden frame he had fashioned." Like the frame in the photograph of the artist’s studio, this frame has a simple profile with a stained and painted surface.
The Eli Wilner frame restoration studio recently completed the restoration of this artist-made frame. Over time, the frame had sustained dents and small chips, and the painted surface had begun to deteriorate. The skilled frame conservators at the Wilner studio carefully filled dents in the stained outer element. Numerous small losses in the painted surface were in-painted, and areas of previous restoration were toned to blend more harmoniously with the intact original surface. The restored frame has been reunited with the painting, and is now on view at the Pollock-Krasner House.
