Jackson Pollock’s Mural for Peggy Guggenheim: Artistic Breakthroughs Combining Past and Present

Elliot Bostwick Davis, John Moors Cabot Chair, Art of the Americas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Dr. Davis is currently working on the MFA Boston’s 2019 exhibition of Jackson Pollock’s Mural, painted for Peggy Guggenheim’s New York City apartment in 1943. Her focus is on the influence of indigenous Native American art on the development of Pollock’s mural imagery.

Elliot Bostwick Davis led the American Galleries Team in the creation of the Art of the Americas Wing, which opened in November of 2010. Before joining the MFA, Boston, Davis was a curator of American, British, and Contemporary drawings and prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She oversees the Art of the Americas Department strategy, including two new pilot programs for curatorial practice and collection sharing, and her recent exhibitions at the MFA, Boston include: Mark Rothko: Reflection (on view through July 2018); Making Modern (2016); and Jamie Wyeth (2014, retrospective with national tour). She received her undergraduate degree cum laude in Art and Archaeology from Princeton University and holds a Master’s in Liberal Studies from NYU and her Master’s, M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Made possible by support from the John H. Marburger III Fund of Stony Brook University