Jackson Pollock

Collection of Sanford McCoy, New York (a gift of the artist)

Collection of Jason McCoy, New York (by descent from the above)

Acquired by the present owner from the above

O'Connor/Thaw 1091-1096

Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, From Kandinsky to Pollock. The Art of the Guggenheim Collections, 2016, pp. 216-223, illustrated in color

Brussels, ING Art Center, Guggenheim Full Abstraction, 2016-2017, pp. 109-115, illustrated in color

Munich, American Contemporary Art Gallery, Jackson Pollock Simply Is: Up Close and Personal, 2018-2019, pp. 36-45, illustrated in color

Palm Beach, The Society of the Four Arts, Charles and Jackson Pollock, 2021, pp. 68-71, illustrated in color

While not known for his printmaking, in 1951 Jackson Pollock produced a portfolio of six screenprints to complement an exhibition of his black paintings at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York City the same year. The portfolio was printed in an edition of 25 in collaboration with the artist’s brother, Sanford McCoy, using photographs of the paintings to create the screens. While this technique is common today, according to Richard Field, Pollock’s use of photographic stencils was “an unheard of but forward-looking event for the day.” Field continues to point out that the prints are not mere reproductions of the paintings, but rather “comparison reveals that Pollock tried to work on the stencils, obliterating some areas, changing other passages.”(Richard S. Field, unpublished manuscript) The prints and paintings differ too in color and size, and thus these works allude to the sinuous fluidity characteristic of Pollock’s unique compositions without directly replicating them.

A later, posthumous edition of the portfolio was printed in 1964 in an edition of 50, authorized by Lee Krasner Pollock and overseen by Mrs. Sanford McCoy. First offered at $200 for the six and intended to be kept together as issued, it is now nearly impossible to find a life-time set intact.