Charles Pollock
The Nature of Spiritual Power in Color and Shape

: Horn, Switzerland

Developed in collaboration with Francesca Pollock and The Charles Pollock Archives, Paris.

american contemporary art GALLERY is pleased to present The Nature of Spiritual Power in Color and Shape, an exhibition of works by Charles Pollock (1902–1988)—the older brother of Jackson Pollock—at its lakefront space in Horn, Switzerland.

Bringing together paintings and works on paper spanning 1951 to 1983, the exhibition offers insight into Pollock’s sustained engagement with color, structure, and rhythm, and includes works never shown to the public before.

Spanning early works on paper (including reverse etchings from the early 1950s), the exhibition brings together key groups such as the Chapala series (Mexico, 1956), the more restrained phase of Black and Gray (c. 1960), and the Rome series (1963), in which Pollock develops subtle chromatic tensions across reds, golds, and violets. Later developments—including stronger color fields from the late 1960s, collages using Color-Aid paper, and works from the New York years as well as late works on Arches paper—complete the presentation.

The exhibition in Horn continues the gallery’s long-standing collaboration with The Charles Pollock Archives and follows the exhibition and publication activity realized since 2008, which has contributed to the reception of Pollock’s work in Europe.

Public Collections (selected)

Charles Pollock’s work is held in major public collections including the Detroit Institute of Arts; the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.); the Smithsonian American Art Museum; the New Orleans Museum of Art; and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, among others.

Several of these projects were realized in collaboration with, or with the participation of, our gallery, including Charles & Jackson Pollock (The Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, 2021; curated by Philip Rylands and Otto Hübner) and lender participation in the Musée national Picasso–Paris exhibition in 2024.

Museum Exhibitions (selected)

Pollock’s work has been presented in museum contexts including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (retrospective, 2015); the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown (2016); mpk – Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern (retrospective, 2017); FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand (2022); and the Musée national Picasso–Paris (Jackson Pollock: The Early Years, 2024).

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by the gallery, featuring an essay by Kirstin Hübner.