This drawing embodies Pollock's transition from the figurative works of the previous decade to the allover, dripped, and poured compositions that he would begin making only a couple of years later. Two totemic figures face each other, the right one with its leg bent along the bottom of the sheet. By reversing the conventional way of handling figure and ground—the white of the paper is visible inside the outlines of the bodies, while the space between them is blue—Pollock created a shallow space in which the two collapse into a single plane. The calligraphic marks and dimensional splatters further heighten this flatness by drawing attention to the surface of the sheet and imposing an allover linear structure.
Jackson Pollock: A Collection Survey, 1934-1954, November 22, 2015–May 1, 2016.
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Jackson Pollock
American, 1912–1956 86 works onlineIn 1947 Jackson Pollock arrived at a new mode of working that brought him international fame. His method consisted of flinging and dripping thinned enamel paint onto an unstretched canvas laid on the floor of his studio.
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