Jackson Pollock's pouring work goes on show in a new exhibition at Tate Liverpool

Date
19 June 2015

As one of the most instantly recognisable modern artists and a GCSE art staple, it’s tempting to think there’s little we haven’t seen of Jackson Pollock’s work. A new exhibition at Tate Liverpool, however, proves us wrong. The exhibition, entitled Blind Spots, is the first in more than 30 years to show his late black pouring works. Some we’ll know, many we won’t, but all prove – if proof were needed – what an important, inspirational figure Pollock was. He managed to bring tricky concepts of Abstract Expressionism into the minds of a far wider audience than the art world inner circle, and his works are surely some of the most oft-seen, yet never tiresome artworks of the last century.

The Liverpool show presents the black pouring works, dating between 1951 and 1953, as a radical departure in Pollock’s practice, setting them against the counterpoint of his earlier drip pairings such as Summertime: Number 9A from 1948, and Tiger and Number 3 from 1949. “The exhibition offers the opportunity to appreciate Pollock’s broader ambitions as an artist and makes these fascinating later paintings readable as ‘blind spots’ in an otherwise intensely debated career,” says the Tate. “After nearly four years of colourful, decorative, non-figurative paintings, Pollock felt compelled to return to the origins of his art. He needed to reinvigorate his practice during a personally difficult period in his life and the representational style of his black pourings, including the emergence of human figures and faces, signalled a major change of direction in Pollock’s style.”

Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots is at Tate Liverpool from 30 June until 18 October.

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Jackson Pollock: Portrait and a Dream 1953. Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Algur H. Meadows and the Meadows Foundation, Incorporated © Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Jackson Pollock: Number 5 1952. Collection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum purchase made possible by a grant from The Burnett Foundation © The Pollock-Krasner Foundation ARS, NY and DACS, London 2015

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Jackson Pollock: Yellow Islands 1952 © The Pollock-Krasner Foundation ARS, NY and DACS, London 2015

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Hans Namuth: Jackson Pollock, 1950 Courtesy Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona © 1991 Hans Namuth Estate

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Jackson Pollock: Number 7 1952. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Purchase, Emilio Azcarraga Gift, in honor of William S. Lieberman, 1987

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Jackson Pollock: Number 14 1951 © The Pollock-Krasner Foundation ARS, NY and DACS, London 2015

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Jackson Pollock: Summertime: Number 9A 1948 © The Pollock-Krasner Foundation ARS, NY and DACS, London 2015

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Jackson Pollock: Number 34 1949. Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute/Art Resource, NY/Scala, Florence © The Pollock-Krasner Foundation ARS, NY and DACS, London 2015

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Emily Gosling

Emily joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in the summer of 2014 after four years at Design Week. She is particularly interested in graphic design, branding and music. After working It's Nice That as both Online Editor and Deputy Editor, Emily left the company in 2016.

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