Untitled, CR1095 (after painting Number 22, CR344), 1951

Jackson Pollock   Master Artists

Jackson Pollock (American, 1912-1956)
Untitled, CR1095 (after painting Number 22, CR344), 1951, printed 1964.
Screenprint, on Strathmore wove paper, numbered 49/50 in pencil lower left, and with the Estate of Jackson Pollock 1964 blindstamp lower left.
From the posthumous printing of 50 authorized by his widow, Lee Krasner, in 1964 (there was also a lifetime edition of 25).
Published by Bernard Steffen.

The artwork is one of the most interesting and emblematic paintings of the artist. In the 1940s, Pollock invented his signature "drip painting". After 1951, Pollock's artworks became darker in color; they belong to a collection painted in black on white or unprimed canvases. These works have been referred to as his "Black Pourings"; he exhibited them at the Betty Parsons Gallery in NYC, but none of them was sold. Today these artworks are considered the most interesting exemplars of Pollock's gestural paintings. The abstract compositions in Pollock’s serigraphs (he made only 11 graphic works) demonstrate his capacity of absorbing parts of art history and reinventing them through a language that allows him to overtake the European figurative tradition. Yet, in moving forward Pollock never leaves anything behind, as confirmed by his colleague and companion Lee Krasner, to whom Pollock confided that he could not stop himself during the creative process, even when some forms began appearing in the painting, because his purpose was in fact to delete any figure.

Paul Jackson Pollock (Cody, 1912 – Long Island, 1956) has been one of the most important artists of the XX century. He was the leading force behind the “School of New York” and Abstract Expressionism. During his life, thanks to the professional relationship with Peggy Guggenheim, Pollock gained considerable fame and notoriety. His greatness lies in the development of a radical totally abstract style in the history of contemporary art. He absolutely redefined the painting and drawing techniques, and found new means to describe space. Pollock grew up in California, where he experienced the native American culture. In 1929, he studied at the Students’ League in New York City and worked in the Regionalist style. In the first years of his career, he was influenced also by Mexican muralist painters such as Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, as well as by some Surrealist artworks realized by Joan Miró and Max Ernst. During an important art exhibition held in 1939 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, he saw for the first time artworks by Pablo Picasso, including the famous “Guernica” of 1937. Through this exhibition, he understood the importance and the expressive power of European Modernism. He began realizing compositions with semi-abstract and totemic figures, with ritualistic and obsessive reworking. After his premature death in 1957 in Long Island, Jackson Pollock became one of the most important artists in the world.

“Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is." - Jackson Pollock.

Reference:
"J. Pollock, Black and White", Marlborough Gallery, New York, March 1969.