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Artist
Hans Namuth, 17 Mar 1915 - 13 Oct 1990
Sitter
Jackson Pollock, 28 Jan 1912 - 11 Aug 1956
Date
1950
Type
Photograph
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image: 37.8 x 30.5cm (14 7/8 x 12")
Sheet: 50.3 x 40.2cm (19 13/16 x 15 13/16")
Mat: 71.1 x 55.9cm (28 x 22")
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of the Estate of Hans Namuth
With this bold affirmation, the painter Jackson Pollock, like Whitman before him, conflated himself and his art with nature itself. From plumbing the depths of human nature in his explorations of the subconscious, Pollock evolved his famous "drip" paintings, in which paint was flung, dribbled, and slashed onto huge horizontal canvases in a form of visual free verse that recalls Whitman's breaking of traditional poetic formats. When painting, Pollock listened to jazz by musicians like Charlie Parker, seeking always, like Parker, to dissolve artificial visions between artist and art. Pollock wrote that his technique helped him achieve this: "On the floor I am literally 'in' the painting."
