Chronology: Jackson Pollock’s Mural, Peggy Guggenheim’s Commission for the East Sixty-First Street Site and Subsequent History to October 1951

Abstract

Going beyond previous chronologies of Jackson Pollock’s life and work, this chronology focuses on the history of Mural, starting with Peggy Guggenheim’s commission for the entrance hall of her New York residence at 155 East Sixty-First Street and including relevant history of her Art of This Century gallery. While serving as a program officer at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (which purchased the property and adjoining brownstones in 2002 for conversion to office space), Rudenstine initiated an extensive study of the history of the work and the site (in collaboration with Charles A. Platt, architect, and Erin Rulli, consultant in preservation of historic properties), establishing an authoritative ground plan of the entrance hall with location and precise dimensions of the wall on which Mural was installed. In tracing the handling of Mural (including material from archival records), and critical access to it from 1943 until its arrival at the University of Iowa in 1951, Rudenstine establishes significant new information.