This bird, with its profiled head, oversized eye, and outspread wings, perches astride a golden orb, or nest. At its feet are disembodied headsperhaps vanquished foes. These various forms coalesce into an oddly phallic configuration. Pollock mixed sand with his paint, perhaps partly inspired by watching Navajo artists execute a sand painting at MoMA's 1941 exhibition Indian Art of the United States.

Gallery label from

Jackson Pollock: A Collection Survey, 1934-1954, November 22, 2015–May 1, 2016.

Medium Oil and sand on canvas
Dimensions 27 3/4 x 24 1/4" (70.5 x 61.6 cm)
Credit Gift of Lee Krasner in memory of Jackson Pollock
Object number 423.1980
Department Painting & Sculpture

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Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock

American, 1912–1956 86 works online

In 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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