Jackson Pollock, Orange Head,1938-1942,

The intensity of feeling in Orange Head is exaggerated by contrasting colour and distortion. It clearly shows the influence of Picasso's work, which was influenced by primitive art into a radically new style of art. This was Pollock's next step in coming to terms with the inner turmoil that compelled him to paint.

Influence by Picasso.

Picasso’s work

Pollock's intense admiration of Picasso

was based on exposure to a number of the Spanish master's

works.

• Throughout the early 1940s Pollock absorbed, entwined, and repositioned a raft of potent influences that mark his mid-career output. Pollock's intense admiration of Picasso was based on exposure to a number of the Spanish master's works.

•

At 26 Pollock suffered a breakdown caused in part by creative blocks and alcoholic binges. Sessions with a Jungian psychoanalyst made him aware that emotions had become the central challenge in his life and work.

CARL JUNG (Swiss, 1875-1961)

was a psychoanalyst who was interested in the way the mind worked, particularly the subconscious. Jung influenced the Surrealists.

The abstract expressionists

were interested in using his ideas of working from the subconscious, just like the Surrealist did.

The scribbled notations and calligraphic markings in Stenographic Figure have a stream-of- consciousness quality. This work seems to merge the styles of Picasso and the Spanish surrealist Joan Miró, whom Pollock particularly admired.

Jackson Pollock, Stenographic Figure.(1942) Oil on linen

Miró, Shooting Star, 1938

Flat areas of colours and a distorted human figure link Pollock's painting with Miro's imagery.

The presence of floating numbers, and seemingly random doodles stem from Pollock's interest in being open, as were surrealists like Miró, to the subconscious as a source of creativity.

Pollock saw a Miró retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1941.

Influence by Miro a Surrealist artist.

The She-Wolf evokes the myth of Romulus and Remus and is reminiscent of primitive cave painting, where handprints were used as a mark of authorship.

Jackson Pollock, The She-Wolf. (1943)

Guardians of the Secret represents a mixture of imagery influenced byancient cultures. Two Northwest Indian totems flank the sides, on the bottom is a dog reminiscent of the jackal-god of the ancient Egyptian underworld, and an African mask, a scarab like embryo, and a rooster line up like relics across the top. In the centre, there is a thickly inscribed slab reminiscent of ancient tombs.

Jackson Pollock, Guardians of the Secret, 1943

The painting Gothic, shows strong, black curves, and Benton's lasting influence on the way Pollock organized his compositions.

It resonates with movement and the "controlled accident" that Pollock had practiced .

Jackson Pollock, Gothic. (1944)

In 1945 Pollock married Lee Krasner and the couple moved to a farmhouse in the rural, eastern end of Long Island. Walking the meadows and woods near Accabonac Creek, which stood at the back of their property, Pollock found a kinship with nature that defines his great, classic work.

Jackson Pollock, Shimmering Substance from The Sounds in the

Grass series. (1946)

Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock.

Today, one has only to step into the meadow behind Pollock's house to understand the overwhelming presence of nature in the dense, interwoven surfaces of his work. Pollock once defended the source of his imagery saying,

"I am nature."

Jackson Pollock, Shimmering Substance from The Sounds in the

Grass series. (1946)

Shimmering Substance glows with the brilliant light of midday sun on a thick meadow. Using saturated colours, the painting shows the importance of the Long Island landscape as a motivating force of Pollock's work in the late 1940s.

Pollock showed thirty-two paintings at Betty Parson's Gallery in New York City in

1950, including Autumn Rhythm and One, Number 31. The editorial staff of Art News praised the exhibition as one of three outstanding

solo shows of the year. Pollock's work was publicized

widely (there was even a Cecil Beaton fashion photo

shoot in the exhibition space, later published in Vogue), yet

the only painting sold from the show was Number

1(1950) Lavender Mist.

Though an Italian writer criticized Pollock's work as "chaos--absolute lack of harmony-- complete lack of structural organization-- total absence of technique, however rudimentary-- once again, chaos...," canvases such as Lavender Mist broke the boundaries of art as people knew it at

mid-century.