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Jackson Pollock

The Presentation

1. Going West

For Educational Purposes Only Revised 9/16

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Jackson Pollock 1934, Oil on fiberboard, 15" x 20 3/4", National Museum of American Art, Washington DC

This early work of Pollock's is somewhat similar in style to that of his instructor and mentor, American Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton. Going West is an example of Pollock’s early interests and painting style, as well as his own personal history. As an image of a pioneering family moving west, it may be a personal statement about his family moving west to Arizona and then later California when he was a child. Pollock's interpretation of a heroic, frontier subject is executed with broad, gestural brushstrokes that pay homage to Benton's Regionalism. The curved lines swirl around the painting moving the viewer's eye in a circular way. The curvilinear lines repeat on the top half and bottom half of the painting. The animals lean into forward movement and seem to forcefully push forward. The dark colored background and bright colored sphere make us feel that this is a nocturnal scene.

Fun Fact: This painting may have been inspired by a family photo of a bridge in Pollock’s birthplace, Cody, Wyoming.

2. Coal Mine - West Virginia 1936, lithograph in black on woven paper, 14 3/16" x 17 7/16", National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

In 1934, when the country was in the depths of the Great Depression, federally funded programs were established to employ people. One of these "New Deal" programs was Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). 3,749 artists were hired to create works for public buildings and spaces using a wide variety of media. The government only required that the images portray "the American scene." Long before they were luminaries, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and others were among the artists employed by the program. They were paid, on average, $75 per piece which was a generous sum at the time.

The movement and power of the coal workers is clearly seen as they strain against the heavy load. The lines and repetition of the railroad tracks pull us in and the strong downward diagonal lines pushes out eye further into the piece. The body shapes repeat and create an implied line, again, pulling our eye deep into the piece.

FUN FACT: A total of 15,663 works of art were created through the PWAP.

3. Untitled1938-1941, oil on linen, 22 1/4" x 50 1/4", Art Institute of Chicago

The late 1930s marked a key period of transition for Pollock, in which he began to separate himself from his early mentor, Thomas Hart Benton.

For Educational Purposes Only Revised 9/16

Is this an abstract painting?

How many faces do you see?

What kind of lines how movement?

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Jackson Pollock Pollock discovered the Mexican muralists José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros and was inspired by their social commitment and use of primitive, archetypal imagery. The bullfight imagery here evokes the work of Pablo Picasso, whose Guernica (1937) made a powerful impression on Pollock when he saw the painting in New York in 1939.

Vivid black contour lines outline human faces and a bull's head with horns. The black curvilinear lines pull us around the piece, yet we also see rectangular shapes (horizontal and vertical lines) superimposed yet still part of the scene. Bright red repeats throughout the piece with a vivid red circle drawing the viewer's eye to the bull's horns, perhaps suggesting a gunshot wound. The forearm and fist suggests a fight and all of the figures seem to be entangled in a brawl. The Cubist influence is obvious in the disconnected body parts.

4. Mural1943, enamel on canvas, 97 ¼” x 238”, owned by University of Iowa, on loan to Getty Museum Los Angeles, CA

Mural precedes Pollock's iconic "drip period;" it is painted with a brush. This massive canvas, about 8 feet x 20 feet, was commissioned by Peggy Guggenheim to hang in her New York townhouse. Paradoxically, its size may tempt us to view it from afar, but it was painted for an intimate space and made to be seen up close, not from billboard distance. Mural was immediately recognized as a turning point for American art. Art critic Clement Greenberg said after he saw the big mural in Guggenheim's townhouse, "I took one look at it and I thought, 'Now that's great art,' and I knew Jackson was the greatest painter this country had produced." It was the piece that launched Pollock's career as an artist. Although seemingly abstract, it actually depicts the words "Jackson Pollock" in obscured lettering. The repeating dark curved vertical lines bisect the canvas vertically. Contrasting colors create a pulsating rhythm and movement throughout the work. Pollock's repetition of yellow, white, black and blue strokes swirl and curve together to create a sense of vibrancy.

FUN FACT:Recently, it was suggested that Pollock’s signature was the starting point for the painting.

5. The Key1946, 59" x 82", oil on linen, Art Institute of Chicago

For Educational Purposes Only Revised 9/16

Are most of the lines curved or straight?

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Jackson Pollock The Key belongs to Pollock’s Accabonac Creek series, named for a stream near his East Hampton studio/home. Marking a crucial moment in his evolution as an artist, this quasi-Surrealist painting was created on the floor of an upstairs bedroom and worked on directly from all sides. Although he suggested landscape (mountain in the center of canvas and sun in upper right), Pollock's primary focus was the process of painting, expressing the power of spontaneous action and chance effects.

Mauve, black and gray contour lines undulate throughout the piece creating organic shapes. The horizontal horizon line bisects the piece in the center with two parallel vertical lines on the right possibly indicating a tree, hemming us into the piece. That is balanced by a series of vertical lines on the left. A particularly colorful piece, Pollock used solid patches of color to represent each element. A hybrid between figurative and abstract, color and line are the predominant elements in the piece.

6. Cathedral1947, enamel and aluminum paint on canvas, 35" x 71 1/2 ", Dallas Museum of Art

Although the name implies that this is a stylized Cathedral, there is nothing figurative in this painting. It might remind the viewer of crumpled aluminum foil. Just at the beginning of his "drip period," Pollock applied white, black, gray and tan to create a lightness, yet depth. His seemingly random paint drizzles create a unified work, yet one can see the hundreds of lines of paint that created such an effect. The weblike lines overlap again and again with countless layers to create a texture that is vibrant and cohesive. Note that Pollock named the painting, whereas in later years he would merely give them a number to eliminate any allusion to an object or scene. The orientation of the painting is ambiguous. There is no beginning or end and no top or bottom. The image seems to continue beyond the limits of the canvas.

7. Number 1A1948, Oil on canvas, 68" x 104“, Museum of Modern Art, New York

For Educational Purposes Only Revised 9/16

Could this be a landscape painting?

Is this painting

almost the same right side

up and upside-down?

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Jackson Pollock Having moved from naming to numbering his paintings, Pollock created another nearly black and white piece with a frenetic sense of movement. Many of Pollock composed many of his works by first setting down a linear framework of diluted black paint, which in many areas soaked through the unprimed canvas. Over this he applied more skeins of paint - lines thick and thin, light and dark, straight and curved, horizontal and vertical. Little splashes of very bright yellow and red punctuate it while a considerable amount of beige canvas remains unpainted. The flat areas of paint contrast with the more textural drips and thin lines of paint. The white line is nearly continuous and was created by squeezing the paint from a hole in a large tube of paint. Pollock repeated his color theme throughout the piece and the unpainted, unprimed canvas sections repeat as well. It is a large work: 5 1/2 feet x 8 1/2 feet. Multiple handprints can clearly be seen in the upper right corner. Pollock maintained a balance between control and chance throughout his Action Painting process. One feels the immersion the artist must have felt in creating this piece.

FUN FACT: One art critic noted that Pollock did, " what his imitators could never do, and why there are no successful Pollock forgeries: they always end up looking like...spaghetti."

8. NUMBER 81949, Oil, enamel, and aluminum paint on canvas, 34 1/8" x 71 1/4" , Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, New York

Although most people associate Jackson Pollock with drip paintings, his "drip period" was only between 1947 and 1950. He rocketed to fame following an August 8, 1949 four-page spread in Life magazine that asked, "Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?"

Pollock's tangled layer of yellow, white, black and orange colors create movement and depth. Orange splashes repeat while the prominent black curved line counter-balances that. Not only do we get a sense of the moving colors but we can sense the artist's movements as he created it. His arm had to move quickly and intentionally with a brush (or turkey baster!) loaded with black paint in order to make the line smooth and prevent the paint from pooling in one spot. Pollock used gravity to apply the paint, along with clever timing and the requisite amount of paint for each pass of color. Repeating colors, lines, and drips interweave and overlap to unify the compositions. As he built up the paint on the canvas, he created texture.

9. One: Number 31, 19501950, Oil and enamel paint on canvas, 106" x 209 3/8", The Museum of Modern Art, New York

For Educational Purposes Only Revised 9/16

Where does your eye go first when you look at this

painting?

Do you think the handprints give the

piece a more personal quality?

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Jackson Pollock

This massive painting is 8 ft. 10 in x 17 ft. 5 3/8 in. This is one of three wall-size paintings that Pollock realized in swift succession in the summer and autumn of 1950. The density of interlacing liquid threads of paint is balanced and offset by puddles of muted colors and by allover spattering. The pictorial result of this tension is a landmark in the history of Abstract Expressionism.

One: Number 31, 1950 is one of Pollock's largest paintings and a masterpiece of the "drip" technique. Calligraphic, looping cords of color traverse the canvas with an energy that registers the force and speed of movement yet is also graceful and lyrical, animating every inch of the composition so that it seems to expand despite its already enormous size. Pollock's process has been compared to choreography, as if his painting traced the movements of a dance. At different moments One: Number 31, 1950 can suggest the pulsing intensity of the modern city, the primal rhythms of nature, or the flickering forms and infinite depths of the cosmos. The canvas pulses with energy and movement as the strings and skeins of enamel, some matte, some glossy, repeat and run, an intricate web of tans, blues, and grays lashed through with black and white.

10. One: Number 31, 1950 (Detail) 1950, Oil and enamel paint on canvas, 8 ft 10 in x 17 ft 5 3/8 in, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

When viewed as a whole we get a sense of forceful movement, yet its details are lacelike and delicate. In a close-up view, we see the ripples in the once-wet paint that create texture. We can see the countless repeating lines and drops of paint. Here we can see the repetition of gray, white and tan.

11. Number 1, (Lavender Mist)1950,oil, enamel and aluminum on canvas, 87 1/2 " x 118", National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

For Educational Purposes Only Revised 9/16

If paint could dance, do you think it might look like this?

Where do you see the most texture?

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Jackson Pollock

Pollock used the patterns caused by the separation and marbling of one enamel wet in another, the tiny black striations in the dusty pink, to produce infinite tones. The name conveys the painting's strong atmospheric effect, though there is no lavender on the canvas. The painting is composed primarily of white, blue, yellow, gray, umber, rosy pink, and black paint. This inspired an art critic to suggest Lavender Mist as the title, which Pollock accepted. Lavender Mist epitomizes Pollock's ultimate style, in which physical action and emotional expression achieve balance. It is an astounding tapestry of color, poured, dripped, and flung onto the canvas. Pollock’s canvases from this decisive phase of his career are considered to have transformed the experience of looking “at” a work of art into one of being immersed, upright, in its fullness. His mastery of chance, intuition, and control brought abstract expressionism to a new level. It was essential, he said, to "walk around it, work from all four sides, and be in the painting, similar to the Indian sand painters of the West."

Curved and straight lines and implied lines dominate the piece resulting in patches of color. The lines and color repeat throughout the work to create an overall unity.

FUN FACT: This piece also has handprints that can be seen in the upper right corner of the canvas. (Pollock's Number 1A has upper right corner handprints.)

12. Number 1 (Lavender Mist) (detail)1950, oil, enamel and aluminum on canvas, 87 1/2 " x 118", National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

The composition is defined by sweeping lines of dripped and splattered paint; a threadlike net that sweeps across and fills the entire canvas. Pollock's traceries anchor the painting: their bending, attenuated strokes and vaulting black and white strands establish rhythmic unity.

Pollock preferred the fluidity of commercial enamel house paints to the more viscous texture of traditional oils. This choice allowed him to weave a more intricate pictorial web, flinging swirls of paint onto the canvas. He used mostly Devoe and Raynolds house paint.

13. Convergence1952, Oil on Canvas, 95 1/4 x 157 1/8”, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo NY

Created during his "drip period," Pollock's riotous style of painting was new and inventive. Convergence was the embodiment of free speech

For Educational Purposes Only Revised 9/16

What colors do you notice the most?

Do you think this painting shows texture?

Is the whole entire canvas covered with

paint?

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Jackson Pollock and freedom of expression -- risky things to embrace boldly -- at a time when the United States took very seriously the threat of Communism and the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Pollock disdained convention and rebelled against oppressive societal constraints. Ironically, some of Pollock's works were sponsored by the Congress for Cultural Freedom (an anti-communist advocacy group founded in 1950), which was backed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The CIA appreciated Pollock's style, because it steered clear of social realism and overt political gestures.

Pollock's abstract work was hard to decipher, but his rebellious nature and expressions of freedom were clearly evident. The collage of colors evoke emotion a wild sense of freedom. Pollock's first applied the color black, then added many layers of yellow, orange, blue and white paint to create lines, some of which develop into shapes. With no figures represented or implied, the riot of repeating colors seems to attack the viewer's eye. The beige in the background is actually the unprimed canvas where no paint was applied. Close up, the viewer notices the numerous layers of paint, which create texture. Standing back, the viewer takes in the massive work as a whole and gets a sense of the convergence of color, shape, line and emotion.

FUN FACT: In 1964, puzzle manufacturer released a jigsaw of this painting which introduced hundreds of thousands of Americans to Pollack’s work.

14. Number 11, (Blue Poles)1952, Enamel and aluminum paint with glass on canvas, 83 1/2” x 192 1/2”, National Gallery of Australia

Pollock started this painting with a dark blue primer, then “worked toward the light”, building up light and colorful layers on top. He used a length of two-by-four lumber which had paint applied to it to lay on repeating dark vertical “poles.” He then added more colors of paint which caused the "poles" to transform as the colored paint overlaid some of the "poles" or melded with it to create new edges and boundaries of the poles. Pollock used the complimentary colors blue and orange to add liveliness and movement to the piece. The viewer's eye scans up and down the vertical lines of the poles and jumps to each repeating pole. Repeating yellow and orange lines seem to dance or float around the entire piece. The addition of crushed glass in the paint creates literal and visual texture.

FUN FACT: The National Gallery of Australia purchased the piece for $1.3 million in 1973. The gallery's director was not able to authorize purchases over $1 million, so the acquisition had to be approved by the Prime Minister. At the time a world record price for a contemporary American painting and the value of abstract art being debated, it created a massive political and media scandal.

15. The Deep1953, Oil and Enamel on Canvas, 59 3/8”x 86 3/4”, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

The Deep was created during Pollock's Dark Period where he seems to be expressing his psychological and emotional struggles. Having declined into abject alcoholism and depression, Pollock stopped painting for a while. Pollock's mother helped pull him out

For Educational Purposes Only Revised 9/16

What repeats across the canvas?

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Jackson Pollock of it and he began painting again. During this time he completed his masterpiece, The Deep, which evokes a chasm - an abyss either to avoid or to enter and get lost.

Pollock primed his canvas with black, then built up white paint with layered brush strokes, showing a return of Pollock's direct involvement with the canvas. Drips are still evident, creating an ethereal, cloudlike essence that floats above the chasm of black. Some strings of white paint are repeated across the chasm and the color yellow is repeatedly layered in with the white giving texture to the dreamy clouds.

FUN FACT: Notice that this painting is named and not numbered even though it is later in Pollock's career. It seems he has something to convey.

16.The ConnoisseurBy Norman Rockwell, 1962

It is not uncommon for artists to depict other artists' work in their own art. Here, Norman Rockwell depicts an art connoisseur examining a Pollock painting. It is interesting that of all the art in the world, Rockwell chose a Pollock piece for his "connoisseur" to appreciate. Ironically, Pollock and Rockwell could not be more opposite. Rockwell was entirely figurative and realistic. Pollock liberated himself from depicting any figures, then numbered rather than named his paintings to make them even more abstract and obscure.

Scanning Questions

ConvergenceFor Educational Purposes Only Revised 9/16

What part of this looks

deep?

What is a Connoisseur?

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Jackson Pollock 1952, Oil on Canvas, 95 1/4 x 157 1/8”, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo NY

Art Elements: What you see.

Texture• Do you think this piece looks rough or smooth? • What are some things an artist can add to paint to give it more texture? (Pollock used sand, crushed glass. Art Literacy has used soap flakes.)

Line• Besides some splashes of paint, this piece is mostly comprised of what? (Lines!)• What color lines do you notice the most?

Art Principles: How the elements are arranged.

Movement• How do you think this piece shows movement? (Intersecting, overlapping lines)• Since this is called an "action painting," do you think the actual movements of the artist help the piece

show movement? (It shows the active movements that were used to fling, drip and drizzle the paint onto the canvas.)

Rhythm/Repetition• What colors do you see that repeat? (Red, yellow, blue, black, white)• What other element repeats? Hint: We just talked about it! (Lines!)

Technical Properties: How it was made.• Do you think this painting is large or small? (It's huge! About 8 feet x 13 feet)

Do you think he put the canvas on an easel or the floor? (Floor)• What kinds of things might Pollock have used to fling and drip the paint onto the canvas? (wet brushes,

dried-up brushes, knives, tubes, turkey basters, etc)

Expressive Properties: How it makes you feel.• Do you think it is fun to paint like this?• How do you know when you are done?

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