Jackson Pollock/Life Magazine (Primary Title)
Bernard Murray Martin, American, born 1935 (Artist)
I believe art should serve both the eye and the mind, and my paintings are much more complex, far more conceptual than pop art. –Bernard Martin
Martin lives in Richmond and taught for years at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he headed the Painting and Printmaking department. His works juxtapose re-creations of magazine and comic book covers from his youth with images from art historical and literary sources, creating commentaries about high art and pop culture that are at once celebratory and subversive.
The painting is based on an article from a 1949 edition of Life magazine, which asked, provocatively, “Is [Jackson Pollock] the greatest living painter in the United States?” Martin’s exacting re-creation of the magazine pages, including an illustration of one of Pollock’s large drip paintings, wittily marries opposing styles of realism and abstract expressionism.
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