"Pollock Matters" in Boston

Last November brought the release of a film documenting retired truck driver Teri Horton's mission to establish a painting she bought at a thrift store for $5 as a Jackson Pollock worth millions.

2007 has its own Pollock authentication dispute played out in a public venue, and like Donn Zaretsky of The Art Law Blog, we, too, have been meaning to call it out:

"Pollock Matters," an exhibition that opened at Boston College's McMullen Museum of Art earlier this month, explores the influence that Pollock and the photographer and graphic designer Herbert Matter had on each other's work, but it's attracting the most attention for its more than 20 recently discovered paintings that may or may not have been the work of "Jack the Dripper."

Alex Matter, Herbert's son, found the pieces, labeled "Jackson experimental works," in 2002 in a locker belonging to his late father at the Home Sweet Home moving company in East Hampton. Matter claims they're the real deal, but a host of studies suggests otherwise, including an analysis by the Harvard University Art Museums that found paint on some of the canvases not known to have been available until after Pollock's death. According to the Boston Globe's Geoff Edgers, an essay in the exhibition's catalogue reveals that Richard Newman, a conservator at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, found out that James Martin, a forensic scientist, came to a similar conclusion after Matter commissioned him to analyze the works. (Matter reportedly kept Martin from publishing his report.) Nancy Netzer, the director the McMullen, and Ellen Landau, the exhibition's curator and one-time member of the now defunct authentication board of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, are taking a sort of middle-of-the-road stance, advocating more research.

Upon her big-screen debut, Horton had been offered $9 million for her painting but was holding out for more — at least $50 million, she told the New York Times' Randy Kennedy. The same reporter also disclosed that Matter has already sold some of his findings to dealer Ronald Feldman.

Untitled No. 2. Poured media on board, 10 x 15 inches. Private Collection. Photo Credit: The McMullen Museum

Untitled No. 22. Enamel on paper, 17 x 14 inches. Private Collection. Photo Credit: The McMullen Museum