An Artist's Anarchic Adventure

Male and Female (1942)

Pollock moved to New York City when he was 18 years old and joined an experimental art group where he was exposed to a variety of innovative painting techniques. It was through these painters that he learned about rhythmic painting and was influenced to try things like painting canvases on the floor and at a larger scale. Pollock was also influenced by Pablo Picasso, which can be seen in Pollock’s first painting that gained major traction, Male and Female, in 1942. 

Full Fathom Five (1947)

Full Fathom Five, painted in 1947, was one of Pollock’s first paintings in his iconic drip style. There are actually a lot of items embedded into this painting, like buttons, coins, nails, and cigarette butts, which is interesting.

Autumn Rhythm (1950)

Pollock painted Autumn Rhythm and a couple of other drip paintings in 1950, and as they were peaking and gaining his all this popularity and success, he decided that he wasn’t going to do drip paintings anymore. His style switched to these very somber black and white paintings that he did using a turkey baster, but sort of brought back the obscured figures he was doing in his earlier work in a much more limited color pallet. When he showed all of these paintings in 1951 at an exhibition none of them sold. This one is called Black and White Number 20.

Portrait and a Dream (1953)

This is Portrait and a Dream, painted in 1953, which was one of Pollock’s last works. Seeing it is upsetting because Pollock was depressed and an alcoholic and died in a drinking-related car crash in 1956 when he was 44. It’s pretty clear at this point that drip paintings weren’t the only thing he did and actually were something he was firmly moving away from before he died, so it's a shame that we got to see so little of his work.