Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Pollock, Jackson & Ossorio, Alfonso. JACKSON POLLOCK 1951. NY Betty Parsons 1951, 1951.
Price: US$2000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Small Folio, Decorated Stiff Wrappers, 20pp,16pp of b&w reproductions of Pollock paintings, with a 2 pp intro by Ossorio his friend and collector, I think the most substantial exhib. catal. during his life time, about Fine copy with trifling wear, and scarce thus (L)
Seller: NUDEL BOOKS, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Jackson POLLOCK.. Jackson Pollock.. Betty ParsonsÕ Gallery., 1951.
Price: US$3202.16 + shipping
Description: pp. (16). The black pourings, a series of enamel and oil paintings from 1951 marked a change of direction for Pollock, away from the previous colourful lyrical works. Pollock would almost calligraphically apply the paint with sticks and basting syringes. This new technique replaced the encrusted dripping paint of previous works, focusing on a more direct relationship between unprimed canvas and black enamel paint. The series of black paintings were first exhibited at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York, November - December 1951. The 16-page catalogue for the show reproduces, in screenprint, sixteen of the black paintings, including one on each of the front and rear covers. Introductory text by Alfonso Ossorio. Also present is the original double-sided screenprint announcement poster for the show, machine-folded three times as issued, and inserted loose. Original cream wrappers, with minor handling marks, browning and spots to covers, internally good. Folded poster with resultant tiny holes in central folds, pinholes to corners of sheet and 1cm tear to right edge not affecting image.
Seller: Tim Byers Art Books, Richmond, United Kingdom
Price: US$4500.00 + shipping
Description: Poster, printed both sides in black on off-white laid paper. Folded in sixths. 43.3 x 56 cm / 17 x 22 in. (oversquare). Some signs of aging at edges; very small loss of paper at top right corner not affecting text or image. The folds are all whole and with no rubbing. In an essay by Jerome Weeks describing the Pollock retrospective at the Dallas Museum of Art in 2015, he writes of the new works, "just black enamel on raw canvas. [with] hints of faces and figures - precisely the kind of traditional imagery he'd rejected." He continues, "The show was a disaster. Later, Parson reportedly sold a single painting â" for half-price." Still, wouldn't you have liked to be walking to the gallery that afternoon at 3:55 p.m., shivering, no doubt? The accompanying catalogue has 16 illustrations on the covers and 16 unnumbered pages. They include 13 full-size plates (1 double-spread) + 2 illustrations (1 on the title page).Off-white, laid paper covers. 28 x 21.5 cm. Text by the artist Alfonso Ossorio. The 4th and 5th scans (incorrectly marked "poster") illustrate the covers of the catalogue. The black border is background, not part of the catalogue design. Slight damage at the bottom front corner and some staining at the bottom margin of the rear cover and last leaf. The first owners of the the poster and catalogue were Harold and Helen Faye, close friends of Pollock's during the 1940s. Harold was a printmaker and fellow artist in the WPA. Laid in: a photocopy of a description by Helen of works by Pollock that she and her husband owned. Years ago, she gave the poster and catalogue to a close friend of hers and mine, a fine printer ot the first water. That's provenance of at least the second water.
Seller: Laurence McGilvery, ABAA/ILAB, La Jolla, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$4500.00 + shipping
Description: Poster, full size is 22" x 16 7/8", folded size is 7 3/8" x 8.5" An appx. 22" x 17" poster for the extremely underwhelming show Pollock had at Betty Parsons Gallery in late 1951. Printed serigraph on both sides in black ink, on cream wove stock paper, with original fold lines. On verso an abstract composition by Pollock filling the full sheet, with serigraphed signature at lower left. Pollock himself designed and executed the poster (O'Connor and Thaw 1090 [P26]). OCLC locates one copy at SFMOMA. VG, some yellowing and age-toning to paper. Proper conservation may eliminate most of this. Sharp corners, no wear, evident crease lines from folds and two pinholes at the fold corners, one fold is barely beginning to split at the left lower base, one tiny tear along left edge
Seller: Mullen Books, ABAA, Marietta, PA, U.S.A.