Much has been stated (and with the 2000 Ed Harris biopic, Pollock, dramatized) on the meteoric career of abstract "action painter" Jackson Pollock (1912-1956). But Pollock's elder brother Charles (1902-1988) also painted prolifically. Filmmaker Isabelle Rèbre's nonfiction feature here threads a dual biography of the pair and their times, via testimony from descendants and survivors (especially Charles' widow Sylvia) and family letters. If Pollock/Pollock missives lack the momentous power of the legendary correspondence between Vincent and Theo Van Gogh, they still evoke the times.
Charles and "Jack" were drawn to New York City and the liberal-progressive, labor-oriented socialist realism exemplified by Diego Rivera. Jackson studied under Thomas Hart Benton, and the brothers eked a living in Depression-hit New York City doing murals and union artwork. It seems the Pollocks grew disenchanted with Joseph Stalin's brutal USSR. In a preview of the later McCarthyite blacklist, lack of enthusiasm for communism cost the artists many a commissioned gig. Rather than using vintage photo albums in the Ken Burns manner, Rèbre's lens illustrates this milieu with modern-day NYC scenes (perhaps inadvertently making one wonder how much of the political climate has changed).
Because of drinking and other pathologies, Jackson sojourned in mental institutions (Charles writing emotional thank-yous to physicians). Nonetheless, Sylvia claims the younger Pollock's storied hellraising was an exaggeration by unethical biographers. Still, after finding international success in the early 1950s, Jackson Pollock died—along with a female admirer—in a scandalous, inebriated Long Island car wreck (Pollock's wife and posthumous curator, artist Lee Krasner, has gone down in the annals as one of artdom's great wronged women; this barely mentions her either).
Pollock & Pollock makes the interesting proposition that Jackson's James Dean-style doom cemented the mystique of NYC as the new epicenter of the art world. Ironically, in angry letters quoted, Jackson deplores the metropolis. Charles himself left for Paris and a more family-oriented existence. He continued painting but soured on the high-profile gallery scene - though in 2015 the Guggenheim in Paris finally displayed both Jackson and Charles in a special joint exhibition. The viewer ponders what lessons Charles took home from Jackson's superstardom and tragic fate: cautionary tale or professional envy? The context here would suggest the former.
Expect no breakthrough insight into the meanings of Jackson's renowned drip paintings (and occasional sculpture) or Charles' own non-representational abstract canvases, other than a reaction against drab socialist realism. It is enough to say these were two brothers who could not imagine doing anything other than art. The finale reveals proposals for a "Pollock & Pollock" documentary dated back many years, built around outtakes from Hans Namuth's famed docu-short Jackson Pollock 51 that helped spread the drip-painter's fame. That filmmaker's son, Peter Namuth, reads Charles Pollock's letter politely declining involvement. One is pleased, however, at the concept's completion now.
What public library shelves would this title be on?
Pollock & Pollock is ideal for visual art collections, even if other titles carry more complete, general accounts of American expressionism and the New York art world.
What academic subjects would this film be suitable for?
The art-history brushstrokes of Pollock & Pollock are most obvious.
What type of classroom would this documentary resource be suitable for?
The educational documentary would fit arts-oriented programming and painting but also social-history discussions of America in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. There is a smattering of French-language use (courtesy Sylvia), though not much for subtitle-phobics.