LONG LOST POLLOCK WORKS COME TO LIGHT
A group of 32 previously unrecorded drip paintings by Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), made in a studio in Tudor City in midtown Manhattan during the late 1940s, have come to light and will go on view next year in an exhibition organized by Mark Borghi Fine Art. Done in oil enamel on board in Pollock's signature drip style, the paintings are the size of typical studio studies, most smaller than 20 inches to a side.
The works were discovered in 2002 by Alex Matter, the son of the late photographer and graphic designer Herbert Matter and abstract painter and New York Studio School founder Mercedes Matter, while he was cleaning out his father's storage facility in East Hampton. It is believed that Herbert Matter had lent his Tudor City studio, which he had during 1940-49, to his friend Pollock (Fernand Léger had also used the space). There, Pollock had apparently experimented with paints invented by Herbert's cousin, the Swiss chemist and art store owner Robi Rebetez. In the storage Alex also discovered a cache of previously unknown photographs related to Pollock and some letters and hand-drawing greeting cards sent by Pollock to his parents.
Matter showed the works to Borghi, who also has galleries in Bridgehampton and Los Angeles, and who represents the Mercedes Matter estate. The works were sent to Old Master conservator Franco Lisi for stabilization and cleaning, and shown to art historian Ellen G. Landau, author of Jackson Pollock (Abrams, 1989) and Lee Krasner: A Catalogue Raisonne (Abrams, 1995), who is writing the catalogue for the Borghi exhibition. Exhibition venues, including a tour, are currently being arranged. The trove is worth about $40 million, according to experts, though none of the paintings are for sale at present.
More details can be seen on a website titled Pollock Matters 2006, so named in reference to the fact that 2006 is the 50th anniversary of Pollock's death.
