No. 6, 1952

Jackson Pollock, a legendary figure in American art, is one of the best known of the Abstract Expressionists.  He created his classic abstract paintings (1947-51) by pouring and dripping fluid, enamel paint from cans, sticks and brushes, while moving around all four sides of the canvas as it lay on the floor.  These signature paintings are characterized by a contrapuntal logic in which lines and splatters are countered by others, in an endless labyrinth of expanding linear forces.

In 1951, imagery from Pollock's early years began to resurface in his "black paintings."  No. 6, 1952 is part of this series.  In it, symbolic figures based on myth are suggested.  The profile of a she-wolf is visible in the upper left, while a female human figure is evoked through the indication of fingers in the upper right, and knees or thighs and a foot in the lower left.  These figural references alternately emerge from and disintegrate into the web of abstract, rhythmic lines.