LOS ANGELES (AP) — One of abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock's most important works is traveling this summer from Iowa to Los Angeles, where experts at the Getty Center hope to restore it to pristine condition.
Pollock's oil-on-canvas "Mural" is slightly more than 8 feet high and nearly 20 feet long.
He painted it in 1943 as a commission for wealthy art collector Peggy Guggenheim. She donated it to the University of Iowa in 1951.
It represents a key moment in Pollock's career, when he began shifting to the abstract style he became famous for.
Over the years, its canvas has stretched and it has become darkened by grime and an aging varnish.
Getty conservation experts are overhauling it in exchange for being allowed to exhibit it at the Getty Center museum for three months.
