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Lot Essay
Like many New York School artists, Jackson Pollock was heavily influenced by various strains of modern art before developing his own breakthrough style. After working through the influence of Thomas Hart Benton and Albert Pinkham Ryder in the early 1930s, followed by an engagement with the Mexican muralists, particular David Alfaro Siquieros, Pollock confronted European modernism, particularly Picasso.
Untitled (Figure) is a from a small series of purplish monochrome paintings, executed around 1944, in which he utilized Picassoid shapes and forms, using Pollock's personal brand of Cubism. These paintings have richly painted surfaces onto which the artist has expressively drawn lines that are literally etched into the paint--indeed, most of the paintings in this series are referred to as "Sgraffito", which is the italian word for "to scratch."
Picasso's Guernica was exhibited in 1939 at the Curt Valentin Gallery in New York and it dramatically affected Pollock and his peers. In Untitled (Figure), the choice of a monochromatic palette and the brilliant use of negative space are echoes of that major painting. Untitled (Figure) is intentionally abstracted, appearing on the one hand to be a Don Quixote-like horse and rider, or a perhaps a group of tangled figures. The jagged form encircled in white in the upper left may be a howling face (another Guernica reference), with a monstrous hand reaching upward, as well as two gangly legs at the lower right. Although indebted to other sources, in Untitled (Figure), Pollock was able to create a work that has a frenetic, nervous energy that runs throughout his oeuvre.
Untitled (Figure) is a from a small series of purplish monochrome paintings, executed around 1944, in which he utilized Picassoid shapes and forms, using Pollock's personal brand of Cubism. These paintings have richly painted surfaces onto which the artist has expressively drawn lines that are literally etched into the paint--indeed, most of the paintings in this series are referred to as "Sgraffito", which is the italian word for "to scratch."
Picasso's Guernica was exhibited in 1939 at the Curt Valentin Gallery in New York and it dramatically affected Pollock and his peers. In Untitled (Figure), the choice of a monochromatic palette and the brilliant use of negative space are echoes of that major painting. Untitled (Figure) is intentionally abstracted, appearing on the one hand to be a Don Quixote-like horse and rider, or a perhaps a group of tangled figures. The jagged form encircled in white in the upper left may be a howling face (another Guernica reference), with a monstrous hand reaching upward, as well as two gangly legs at the lower right. Although indebted to other sources, in Untitled (Figure), Pollock was able to create a work that has a frenetic, nervous energy that runs throughout his oeuvre.