Jackson Pollock's "Mural": The Story of a Modern Masterpiece is a new documentary produced by the University of Iowa in collaboration with the University of Iowa Museum of Art. The film documents the truths and the myths surrounding this mammoth sized painting “Mural”. Artist Jackson Pollock created the painting in 1943 for art patron and advocate Peggy Guggenheim, for her New York townhouse. This painting measuring approximately 20 feet long by 8 foot high changed the landscape of American modern painting forever. Pollock’s creation ignited what would later be called “Abstract Expressionism”, an art movement, which even the C.I.A. would embrace to further the cause of American freedom during the uneasy years of the Cold War.

The painting would arrive eight years later at the doorstep of the University of Iowa’s School of Art and remain gallery-homeless until it’s permanent residence at the new Museum of Art, which was constructed in 1969.

When a disastrous flood came to the state of Iowa in 2008, it did not fail to overlook the Arts Campus at the University of Iowa. Weeks before classes would begin, art students would have no classrooms of studios to study and create in. The heart of the Art Campus, The Museum of Art, was totally eradicated, deemed unfit now to house the multi-million-dollar collection of pieces including the illustrious “Mural” created by Pollock some sixty-five years earlier.

Luckily, thousands of pieces were saved including “Mural”, which once again became homeless.

The film also chronicles the travels of the painting from the one-year conservation at the Getty in Los Angles, to its exhibit for the Venice Biennale at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

The trials and history of this painting parallels a journey of its importance in our culture. From Pollock’s amazing creation during World War II to the beginning of its world tour throughout Europe in the digital age, the film’s goal is to emphasize how this painting has transcended generations and influenced countless artists through the ages. As Historian Eric Doss puts it, “Mural is really about modernism's mobility”.

The film opens with actor/author and now art curator Steve Martin suggesting that today if you want to create a drip picture, you could be accused of thievery. But this film is not a biography on artist Jackson Pollock the famous drip painter from the nineteen-fifties. It is a story, of the story behind the painting Pollock created called “Mural” and the excursion of the cultural shift that came with it. A shift that brought American modern art to the forefront of the world.   

Produced and Directed by Kevin Kelley
Executive Producer: Ben Hill
Director of Photography: Kirk Murray
Post-Production and Effects: Dana Telsrow

Runtime: 58 minutes 

Featured Interviews:

Steve Martin - Actor/Author/Musician
James Cuno - President & CEO J. Paul Getty Trust 
Yvonne Szafran - Head of Paintings of the Conservation Getty Trust
Mary Dearborn - Peggy Guggenheim Biographer
Dr. Ellen Landau - Krasner and Pollock expert
Erica Doss - Thomas Hart Benton Scholar
Dr. David Anfam - Director of Clifford Still Museum and Pollock scholar
Joni Kinsey - UI Art Historian
Sean O’Harrow - UI Museum of Art director

For more about the film's interviewees, click here.