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Untitled

Artist/Maker (American, 1912–1956)
Dateca. 1945
MediumWatercolor and gouache over engraving and drypoint
DimensionsImage: 11 7/8 × 8 7/8 in. (30.2 × 22.6 cm)
Sheet: 15 9/16 × 11 in. (39.5 × 28 cm)
Credit LineR. T. Miller Jr. Fund
Object number1958.48
Status
Not on view
Copyright© Estate of Jackson Pollock / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, NYMore Information
This drawing-over-print has all the hallmarks of the spontaneous, gestural qualities-and unconventional materials-for which Jackson Pollock is known. His work in the early and mid-1940s often took up Surrealist imagery. This is especially apparent in the print underlying the drawing in this work, on which forms resembling a fish or lobster, eyes, a leg and arm, and a wing are visible. During 1944-45, Pollock experimented with engraving, working under British artist Stanley William Hayter (1901-1988), and this sheet contains two of the proofs they pulled at that time.

Pollock drew on one side of the support (which is printed on both sides with the same plate) in the vibrant primary colors of yellow, red, and blue in addition to black, leaving mostly clear the shape at upper right, emphasizing the outline of the winglike shape at top center, and shading in between and behind the leg- and armlike forms in the lower half of the work, as well as both vertical edges. Both sides of the sheet were weakly impressed with a counterproof newspaper sheet, with what appears to have been advertisements; some of the text visible in counterproof is "Kirkman pure white Flak[es]," "Athlete's foot," "Reserve .!.!.Whisky," and "Manhattan," The numbers "8 3 5 94" are additionally visible in the engraving.
Exhibition History
American Painting Since 1900
  • Kresge Art Center, Michigan State University ( 1960-06 - 1960-07 )
An American University Collection: Works of Art from the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio
  • Kenwood House, London (May 3, 1962 - October 30, 1962 )
Jackson Pollock: New-Found Works
  • Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT (October 5, 1978 - November 26, 1978 )
  • National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (December 22, 1978 - February 11, 1979 )
  • The Smart Museum of Art, Chicago (March 12, 1979 - May 6, 1979 )
Focus on Permanent Collection: Abstract Expressionism
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 21, 1993 - November 21, 1993 )
Going Modern at the Allen: American Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1980
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 16, 2003 - July 27, 2004 )
No Limits, Just Edges: Jackson Pollock: Paintings on Paper
  • Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (June 4, 2005 - September 18, 2005 )
  • The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (June 1, 2006 - September 29, 2006 )
New Frontiers: American Art Since 1945
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 29, 2006 - December 23, 2006 )
Out of Line: Drawings from the Allen from the Twentieth Century and Beyond
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 1, 2009 - December 23, 2009 )
Collections
  • Modern & Contemporary