Untitled (34 Bird)

Artist Jackson Pollock (American, 1912-1956)

Datec. 1942

MediumPen and ink and gouache on deep pink paper

DimensionsUnframed: 10 5/8 x 3 3/4 in. (26.99 x 9.53 cm)
Framed: 25 1/8 x 19 1/8 x 1 1/8 in. (63.82 x 48.58 x 2.86 cm)

Credit LineCollection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum purchase made possible by a grant from The Burnett Foundation

Object number1985.15

Status

Not on view

Signedverso, ink, bottom, " Jackson Pollock 1944CA/ Lee Krasner Pollock 1960"

Category

Works on Paper

Label TextOf all the Abstract Expressionists working in New York in the 1940s and 1950s, Jackson Pollock was undoubtedly the most conspicuous. Before arriving at pure abstraction, Pollock explored personal symbols that could have broader mythic meaning. One example, the Modern’s small drawing Untitled (34 Bird), c. 1942, on deep pink paper, reflects Pollock’s interest in Native American and non-Western cultures. In the work, a standing figure with a cryptic, almost abstract head sprouts four feathered wings rather than arms, echoing feathered masks and totemic forms Pollock had seen in periodicals, books, and exhibitions. These early figurative studies do not have distinct or modeled faces but appear mysteriously symbolic. Among the few papers the artist left upon his death was a clipping from the New York Times of a spread of ten masks from the Museum of Modern Art’s 1941 exhibition Indian Art of the United States.