Although telling us nothing about the individual pictures the exhibition catalogue includes an essay on the great action painter, from which it can be inferred that it is indeed the Jackson Pollock who is up for review. There is a basic resemblance to the Pollock style and the exhibition is officially supported.
The dealer responsible for the exhibition also can reasonably explain the remarkable feat of getting so many Pollocks together for Australia.
The "official" support includes the opening of the exhibition in Perth, its starting point for an Australian tour, by Elwyn Lynn, chairman of the Visual Arts Board, the current showing at a NSW Government funded gallery (the Ivan Dougherty gallery at the Alexander Mackie College) and the forthcoming official opening, in seven days time, by the NSW Attorney-General, Mr Walker.
The affair has been organised by a lively Perth dealer, Bob Ledwij, whose imagination and adventurousness in art matters have manifested themselves in a number of fascinating projects in Perth, including a Pro Hart show set to the music of Ermo-lenko.
Basically in the Pollock style, the works have an immaculate appearance not easily identified by our preconditioned minds with an artist whose technique was inspired by the surrealist device of swinging over a canvas a bucket of paint with a hole in it.
They lack the great asymmetry of his compositions, which surely' was the key to his genius. There are no diverting focal points.
The various colours are applied with an even intensity and do not jostle for attention. The works are simply flat and empty, resembling the do-it-yourself machine productions of a fairground sideshow.
Pollock evidently used to work over large areas of canvas, snipping out the interesting bits, then working in the highlights.
Perhaps these are the uninteresting bits, to which he failed to add highlights.
Yet the whole collection is hailed as $4 million worth.
The parties associated with the exhibition certainly have a lot of faith in Grace Bros Removals, who delivered it to the college gallery.
The appearance of nine unrecorded Pollocks out of the blue with no declared provenance left some questions to be asked.
Ledwij says that he was able to outmanoeuvre leading American dealers in securing the Pollocks and getting them at a discount because the paintings were US probate and divorce settlement matters best handled outside America.
Where else to sell Pollock but in Australia, his one time best market?
The works have good provenances, he explains.
His "coup" was facilitated by a liaison with a dealer in Los Angeles.
He has built up US connections which have given him access to a newly discovered Vermeer.
As the great Dutch artist lived above an inn and painted only 42 works the discovery of a new Vermeer is indeed an earth-shattering event.
The titles of the works were probably given by their owners, he says. Sloppy handwriting presumably accounts for four of the works becoming immortalised as studies for "Blue Polls."
Studies? Surely these were alien to action painting, Another result of owner titling.
None of the works are recorded in any of the books on Pollock but Ledwij says that they will be included in the next one.
For Pollock's reputation it must be disappointing that these works have appeared.
Perhaps our appreciation has been overly spoiled through our encounter with the one great masterpiece Blue Poles.
Postscript: Letter from art dealer Sydney Rex Irwin, published in the AFR on 10 May 1978:
Sir, Your Saleroom correspondent, Terry Ingram, deserves to be acknowledged as the first local art journalist to question seriously the authenticity of the recent Jackson Pollock exhibition and giving good reasons for so doing.
In his article, Pollocks from out of the Blue (FR May 2) he was at pains to suggest that the works should be studied carefully before accepting the attributions of their enthusiastic entrepreneur.
I am surprised that those members of the art establishment who gave this exhibition a dignity it did not deserve did not follow Mr Ingram's path to the books available on the artist. By their lack of research, or, rather, plain lack of care, these people have cast grave doubts as to their own credibility.
The point Mr Ingram made so well was that artists who work in this very free manner are not generally in the habit of making "studies" for larger works; that in itself was enough to make one suspicious. One felt the word on the tip of Mr Ingram's pen was FAKE; perhaps he should have been allowed to use it.
This whole affair reeks of provincialism.
Footnote: Terry Ingram reports that he exhibition at the Ivan Dougherty gallery did not eventuate and the gallery refused show the paintings to journalists (including himself). The fate and whereabouts of the works is unknown although there was an article in the New York Times, May 5 1978. ‘Jackson Pollock’ Exhibit to Be Checked. that the paintings were being sent to the United States for a check of their authenticity.
