Mural on Indian Red Ground is a 1950 abstract expressionist drip painting by American artist Jackson Pollock, currently in the collection of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. It is valued at about $250 million[1] and is considered one of Pollock's greatest works.[2]
| Mural on Indian Red Ground | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Jackson Pollock |
| Year | 1950 |
| Type | oil painting |
| Dimensions | 180 cm × 240 cm (72 in × 96 in) |
| Location | Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran |
History
editThe collection of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art was bought during Iran's 1970s oil boom under the supervision of queen Farah Pahlavi.[3][4] The museum was established in 1977 but the collection was displayed for only a short period. After the 1979 revolution, the paintings were stored in the basement of the museum and carefully looked after for about 30 years. In a 2005 exhibition Mural on Indian Red Ground and many other paintings were displayed for the first time after the revolution.[5][6][7]
Today, Mural on Indian Red Ground is considered one of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art's prize pieces.[8] The painting was loaned to Japan in 2011-12 and was displayed in an exhibition that originated at the Aichi Prefectural Museum in Nagoya, Japan, in 2011 and traveled to[9] the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jackson Pollock.[10] In return to Iran on 11 May 2012, the painting was seized in the Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport by Iran's customs service. The service said it confiscated the work over money owed by the Ministry of Culture, which ran the museum.[8] After more than two weeks, the painting was finally released and returned to the museum.[11] The painting was, around 2010, valued by Christie's at $250 million.[12]: 52
Notes
edit- ^ "Tehran Museum to Display Masterpiece in Japan." FARS News Agency. 2011. (September 27, 2015).Archived 2016-02-23 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Vogel 2003.
- ^ Dehghan 2012a.
- ^ Tait 2007.
- ^ Dehghan, Saeed Kamali (1 August 2012a). "Tehran exhibition reveals city's hidden Warhol and Hockney treasures". the Guardian. Retrieved 2015-09-27.
- ^ "Masterpiece Basement". T Magazine. The New York Times. December 2, 2007. Archived from the original on June 30, 2013. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Hammond & Hammond 2012.
- ^ a b BBC News 2012.
- ^ "'Jackson Pollock: A Centennial Retrospective'". 23 December 2011.
- ^ Olsen 2012.
- ^ "Jackson Pollock Artwork Held Hostage by Customs." Iran Times International (Washington, DC). 2012. Archived 2016-02-23 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Waldman, Peter; Motevalli, Golnar (23 November 2015). "The Greatest Museum Never Known". Bloomberg Businessweek. pp. 50–55.
References
edit- Vogel, Carol (2003-11-28). "Inside Art". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 27, 2013. Retrieved 2022-06-18.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - Dehghan, Saeed Kamali (1 August 2012b). "Former queen of Iran on assembling Tehran's art collection". the Guardian. Retrieved 2015-09-27.
- Tait, Robert (2007-10-28). "The art no one sees: Tehran's basement masterpieces". the Guardian. Retrieved 2015-09-27.
- Hammond, Jeff; Hammond, Jeff Michael (2012-04-19). "Looking beyond the giant canvases". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2015-09-27.
- "Masterpiece Basement". T Magazine. The New York Times. December 2, 2007. Archived from the original on June 30, 2013. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - "Jackson Pollock art returned to Iran museum". BBC News. 2012-05-29. Retrieved 2015-09-27.
- Olsen, Kelly (2012-05-02). "Jackson Pollock's Splashes of Paint From Iran". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2012-05-12. Retrieved 2022-06-19.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)