MoMA Learning


Jackson Pollock (American, 1912-56). Number 1, 1948. 1948. Oil and enamel on unprimed canvas, 68" x 8' 8" (172.7 x 264.2 cm). Purchase

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In 1946, Jackson Pollock moved his studio into a barn on his property on Long Island, in New York, and by 1947 he was making his paintings in a very different way. Pollock chose to paint his canvases on the floor, using tools such as brushes, rags, sticks, trowels, knives, to drip, splatter, and pour the paint onto the canvas. About his new way of painting, Pollock remarked, "On the floor I feel more at ease. I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting."
  1. Does this information change the way you see this painting. Why or why not?

  2. Think about the size of this painting. Compare it to a smaller painting such as the one we just looked at, Salvador Dali's The Persistence of Memory. How might the experience of making a large painting on the floor be different from working on a very small canvas?


Three years after making this painting, Pollock said, "It seems to me that the modern painter cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any other past culture. Each age finds its own technique."

  1. What do you think of Pollock's statement? Explain why you agree or disagree.

 

Andrew Wyeth (American, b. 1917). Christina's World. 1948. Tempera on gessoed panel, 32 1/4 x 47 3/4" (81.9 x 121.3 cm). Purchase

 

  1. What do you think about the fact that both of these paintings were made by Americans in 1948?

  2. Do you think this fact says something about American art in 1948 and choices artists were making? Why or why not?

These two paintings are among the most famous art works in MoMA's collection. Do you think this says anything about how people see painting today? Why or why not?

In the past century the world has seen the development of computers and digital technologies, the end of the Cold War, civil war and genocide in Eastern Europe and Africa, AIDS, genetic exploration, and space exploration, among many other scientific, political, and social developments.

Do you think there are new forms of self-expression that reflect global
and technological changes in the twenty-first century? Can you think of specific examples to support your ideas?

  1. Can you imagine what artistic expression might be like in the future?
For more information about art from this period and about the exhibition Making Choices, please visit the exhibition site.

 

 

© 2001 The Museum of Modern Art, New York