Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)

Born in Cody, Wyoming in 1912, Pollock arrived in New York City in 1930 by way of Arizona and California, a young artist with neither formal training nor direction, but one determined to make it as an artist. As such, the 1930s were for Pollock a period of self-discovery, a passionate struggle--both physically with his materials and psychologically--to imbue his work with meaning. These circumstances give his work from this period a certain unrefined rawness. At the same time this body of work can be seen as a response to the milieu of burgeoning artistic styles surrounding him, which became for a source of inspiration. Woman, executed early in Pollock's short but dazzling career, provide a captivating window into the artist's psyche as he sought to define himself and his art. In Woman we see the roots and influences which would ultimately lead him, just a few years later, to a radically new style and technique which would catapult him to international superstardom as the embodiment of a new American modernism, permanently altering the landscape of the art world.