Jackson Pollock: Memories Arrested in Space is Martin Gray's
remarkable biographical poem on the life of the dynamic and
controversial American painter. The narrative chronicles the reckless,
adventurous, and often desperate life of the twentieth century's most
pivotal American artist, from his beginnings in the American northwest
through his pioneering of a revolutionary new painting technique that
came to be known as Abstract Expressionism to his death at the wheel of
a car on Long Island when he was only 44 years old.
Written entirely in iambic trimeter (the same meter that Gray used to
write about Charlie Parker's life and work in his internationally
acclaimed Blues for Bird), Gray's biographical poem runs more than
3,000 lines.
In Jackson Pollock: Memories Arrested in Space, Gray captures the
essence of the brilliant yet tortured artist in language that reflects a
Pollock painting: spontaneous, beautiful, and haunting, with bursts of
energy that touch the soul and make it soar. Art and poetry lovers alike
will rejoice in Gray's homage to a true American icon.