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Venice's Guggenheim to unveil second restored Pollock painting

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is hosting three major exhibitions spotlighting Jackson and Charles Pollock this year, with the second and third both opening on April 23.

The Venice museum's "Pollock 365 Days" program got its start with "Alchemy," which ran from mid-February through early April and welcomed back Jackson Pollock's first so-called drip painting -- one of the museum's most prized works -- after a year of restoration.

Video, a 3D replica, touch screens and interactive devices took viewers through the conservation process and offered new insights into the American painter's work that were uncovered in the process. "Alchemy" the painting was on view without glass or plexiglas, making for better views of its complex surface.

In the next two exhibitions, Jackson Pollock's Abstract Expressionist masterpiece "Mural" makes its European premiere as the focus of the exhibition "'Mural:' Energy Made Visible" (April 23 - November 9), which follows the 20-foot-long work's 18-month restoration.

On display alongside the artist's largest painting will be the newly restored "Alchemy" and works by the artist's wife Lee Krasner as well as David Smith and Robert Motherwell. Pollock's relationship to photographers of action and energy such as Herbert Matter, Barbara Morgan, Aaron Siskind and Gjon Mili will also be examined.

Concurrent with the "Mural" exhibition, "Charles Pollock: A Retrospective" will look at the work of Jackson's older brother, an abstract artist in his own right. Letters, photos and sketches will illuminate the relationship between the brothers, while art by Jackson Pollock, Thomas Hart Benton and Sanford Pollock will shed light on the elder Pollock's work.

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is one of the world's most important for modern art, and the late collector Peggy Guggenheim is credited with having discovered Jackson Pollock -- "I think by far my most honorable achievement," she's been quoted as saying.

www.guggenheim-venice.it