Jackson Pollock: Exploring Alchemy

Jackson Pollock’s Alchemy (1947), a celebrated icon of postwar abstraction that Peggy Guggenheim acquired through her financial support of the artist, is on view for the first time in the United States since 1969. A team of conservators from the Guggenheim and Italian organizations has completed scientific analysis and treatment of the painting in Florence. In the Sackler Center for Arts Education, video footage and interactive kiosks display three-dimensional imaging, elemental mapping, x-radiography, and non-destructive analytical techniques to identify the painting’s pigments and binders. This didactic exhibition on one of Pollock’s earliest poured paintings draws visitors into the world of an art conservator, allowing them to comprehend the physical properties of the materials the artist used to create Alchemy and how he applied them to the canvas.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.