The art of Jackson Pollock
"There was painting before Jackson Pollock, and there's painting after Jackson Pollock," said Gavin Delahunty, curator of a new exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art, titled "Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots" (through March 20, 2016). It features more than 70 works by the American abstract expressionist artist, including some of his best-known paintings. But the exhibit focuses mostly on a rarely-seen series, done in 1951, when Pollock painted only in black.
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan
"The Flame"
"The Flame" (c. 1934-38), oil on canvas, mounted on fiberboard, by Jackson Pollock.
Paul Jackson Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming in 1912, and grew up throughout the Southwest as his family relocated, trying to eke out a living. Encouraged by his mother, Pollock took art classes in high school. "Those were the only classes he really seemed to be very good at," said Helen Harrison, who runs the Pollock-Krasner Home & Study Center near East Hampton, Long Island.
At age 18, Pollock traveled to New York to study with American muralist Thomas Hart Benton. Gradually, however, he became fascinated with abstraction - his work drawing the attention of influential collectors and gallery owners.
"Stenographic Figure"
"Stenographic Figure" (c. 1942), oil on linen, by Jackson Pollock.
Pollock's complex and colorful, multi-layered canvases took the international art world by storm beginning in the 1940s.
Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner
In 1945 Pollock married fellow artist Lee Krasner, and the following year she convinced him to move from New York City to East Hampton, Long Island. "I think there was definitely an incentive to get him away from the drinking buddies," said Helen Harrison. "But also just to give him the space, and the kind of mental space, that he needed to really develop himself. And he did."
The two were photographed on Long Island in April 1949 for a Life Magazine profile of Pollack. The article suggested he was America's greatest living painter.
"Cathedral"
It was in East Hampton that Pollock developed the style that really made him famous: dripping and pouring paint directly onto canvas.
Pictured: One of Pollock's most famous works, "Cathedral" (1947), with detail.
Drip Painting
"I usually paint on the floor," Pollock once explained. "I enjoy painting on a large canvas. I feel nearer, more a part of the painting."
In The Studio
Jackson Pollock at his studio, 1950.
The floor of his studio, now a museum, is still splattered with his colorful industrial paint.
"Black and White Painting II"
"Black and White Painting II" (c. 1951), oil on canvas, by Jackson Pollock.
But just as sales of Pollock's layered abstractions were taking off, in the early 1950s he started to work in black.
Studio
An undated photographed of Jackson Pollock's studio, by Hans Namuth.
His abstractions becomes slightly more figurative, with recognizable images peeking through: a head, an ear, arms.
"Number 7"
"Number 7" (1951), enamel on canvas, by Jackson Pollock.
"On some levels you might say it looks like a doodle," said correspondent Rita Braver.
"It's doodle-y," said "Blind Spots" curator Gavin Delahunty, "because he's still thinking it through, 'Can I make paintings exclusively using black on raw cotton substrate that can maintain the tightness and excitement of my classic paintings?' And this is the moment that the penny drops."
"Number 14"
"Number 14" (1951), oil on canvas, by Jackson Pollock.
"Echo: Number 15"
"Echo: Number 15" (1951), enamel paint on canvas, by Jackson Pollock.
More lyrical than his earlier drip paintings, "Echo: Number 15, 1951" almost appears figurative.
"Number 15, 1951"
"Number 15, 1951" (1951), enamel on canvas, by Jackson Pollock.
"It is part of the transition of the black paintings that Pollock starts to resuscitate or bring back to life some of the figuration that had previously dominated in his painting," said Gavin Delahunty.
Did anybody rush out to buy them? "No, sadly, not," said Delahunty. "People were confused; 'Why would someone who has just developed a new language of painting go off on a tangent?' But it was Pollock distilling and purifying everything he had learned."
"Untitled"
"Untitled" (1951), ink on Japanese paper, by Jackson Pollock.
"Number 3"
"Number 3, 1952" (1952), enamel on unprimed canvas, by Jackson Pollock.
"Number 22"
Jackson Pollock outside his studio in East Hampton, Long Island, with "Number 22, 1951," 1952. Photograph by Hans Namuth.
"Portrait and a Dream"
"Portrait and a Dream" (1953), oil and enamel on canvas, by Jackson Pollock.
"Untitled"
"Untitled" (c. 1949-50) by Jackson Pollock
"Untitled"
"Untitled" (c. 1949), plaster and paint on wire, by Jackson Pollock.
"Number 1A"
In addition to the Dallas Museum of Art exhibition, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City - which has more Pollocks than any other museum - is displaying nearly everything it owns of the artist (some 60 works) in a show called "Jackson Pollock: A Collection Survey 1934-1954" (through May 1, 2016).
Pictured: "Number 1A, 1948" (1948), oil and enamel paint on canvas, by Jackson Pollock.
"Number 18"
"Number 18" (1950), oil and enamel on masonite, by Jackson Pollock, on display at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Jackson Pollock would return to color, but by the mid-1950s he was drinking, and cheating on his wife. Then in 1956 he crashed his car while driving drunk. Pollock and another passenger were killed; his mistress, also in the car, was injured.
"Autumn Rhythm"
"Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)" (1950), enamel on canvas, by Jackson Pollock, on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
For more info:
Exhibition: "Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots" at the Dallas Museum of Art (through March 20)
Pollock-Krasner Home & Study Center, East Hampton, N.Y.
Exhibition: "Jackson Pollock: A Collection Survey, 1934-1954" at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City (through May 1, 2016)
Jackson Pollock at the Guggenheim Museum, New York City
Jackson Pollock at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City