Visiting Liverpool and a Jackson Pollock admirer? Blind Spots, an exhibition showing at the Tate Liverpool, showcases works from his black pourings period together for the first time in over 30 years.

Such is the fame of abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock that his signature drip painting technique is almost the victim of its own success.

But Blind Spots, an exhibition showing at the Tate Liverpool, puts paid to the notion that we know everything there is to know about the artist with a rare collection that shows his black pouring works for the first time in over 30 years.

After nearly four years of colourful, decorative, non-figurative paintings, Pollock felt compelled to return to the origins of his art

Pollock is widely accepted as one of the most important and provocative American artists of the 20th century, his work has credited with making an immense contribution to abstract art.

He famously pioneered action painting, a process that saw him dripping paint on canvases laid flat on the studio floor. This collection is dedicated to paintings he executed between 1951 and 1953, a phase of the artist’s work that is referred to as black pourings and which was a highly influential part of his career. Focusing on the latter part of the artist’s career, it sheds light on a less known, but extremely significant, part of his body of work.

Jackson Pollock Number 34. 1949.Jackson Pollock Number 34. 1949.

The exhibition introduces audiences to the artist’s evolution in style and technique via a selection of his important drip paintings, made between 1947 and 1950. Works include Summertime: Number 9A 1948 (Tate) and Number 3, 1949: Tiger 1949 (Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden).

Exhibiting works from the height of the artist’s fame, set against his lesser known paintings, helps show the radical departure represented by the black pourings. The collection offers the opportunity to appreciate Pollock’s broader ambitions as an artist and makes these fascinating later paintings readable as blind spots in an otherwise intensely debated career.

Jackson Pollock Yellow Islands 1952 (1).Jackson Pollock Yellow Islands 1952 (1).

The black pourings, a series of black enamel and oil paintings, are presented alongside unique works on paper and prints from the same period, regarded as his most productive output as a draughtsman. Also on display are a number of virtually unknown and rarely seen sculptures, giving viewers the opportunity to reconsider his intentions as an artist.In 1965, art historian Michael Fried remarked that Pollock’s Black pourings saw him “on the verge of an entirely new and different kind of painting… of virtually limitless potential”.

Indeed, after nearly four years of colourful, decorative, non-figurative paintings, Pollock felt compelled to return to the origins of his art. He needed to reinvigorate his practice during a personally difficult period in his life and the representational style of his black pourings – including the emergence of human figures and faces – signalled a major change of direction in his style.

His shift in technique also anticipated the arrival of colour field painting

His shift in technique also anticipated the arrival of colour field painting that followed in the mid-1950s to early 1960s. Characterised by large areas of a more or less flat single colour, the technique was found in the work of artists like Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis and Jules Olitski.

Photo by Hans NamuthPhoto by Hans Namuth

The black pourings were first exhibited at Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, in 1951, with another collection shown at Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, a year later. The current exhibition is the largest gathering of these works in a public institution and the most significant showing since their 1980 presentation at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.

The exhibition is supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Terra Foundation for American Art, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation and Tate Liverpool Members

Blind Spots run until October 18 at the Tate Liverpool’s special exhibition galleries.

www.tate.org.uk

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