Jackson Pollock's Mural

New investigations leading to conservation treatment that improved the painting's aesthetic impact and stabilized its physical structure

Wide, rectangular painting filled with swirls of black strokes with other colors such as yellow, red, white, and blue

Mural, 1943, Jackson Pollock. Oil and casein on canvas. University of Iowa Museum of Art, Gift of Peggy Guggenheim, 1959.6. Reproduced with permission from the University of Iowa

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Commissioned in 1943 by Peggy Guggenheim, Mural is a monumental transitional painting by American artist Jackson Pollock. Stories about its creation and installation have dominated interpretation of the painting for decades. Now in the collection of the University of Iowa Museum of Art, Mural came to Getty for a two-year project of conservation and research to investigate the materials and techniques used by Pollock and to carry out a major conservation treatment to improve the painting's aesthetic impact and to stabilize its physical structure.