The Key
<p><em>The Key</em> belongs to Jackson Pollock’s <em>Accabonac Creek</em> series, named for a stream near the East Hampton property that he and his wife, the painter Lee Krasner, purchased in late 1945. Marking a crucial moment in his evolution as an artist, this quasi-Surrealist painting was created on the floor of an upstairs bedroom and worked on directly from all sides. Although there is a general suggestion of landscape, here the process of painting became primary, expressing the power of spontaneous action and chance effects. The resulting abstraction, with its expressive, gestural appearance, prefigured the allover compositions of Pollock’s celebrated drip paintings, which debuted the following year.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1946
- Medium
- Oil on linen
- Dimensions
- Unframed: 149.8 × 208.3 cm (59 × 82 1/16 in.); 149.9 × 208.3 cm (59 × 82 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Jackson Pollock
Artist
Painting
Jackson Pollock was a titan of Abstract Expressionism and one of the most famous American artists of the 20th century. He pioneered an acrobatic process which produced large-scale, gestural, all-over drip paintings, or “action paintings.” Before developing his iconic style, Pollock worked for the WPA Federal Art Project and studied under artists such as David Alfaro Siqueiros, who influenced Pollock’s signature experiments with paint and material. During his lifetime, Pollock exhibited widely in New York and beyond. Since his untimely death in 1956, his work has been shown at institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, Centre Pompidou, Guggenheim Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Kunstmuseum Basel, and his paintings have sold for tens of millions of dollars on the secondary market. His work belongs in esteemed collections worldwide.
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More by Jackson Pollock
White Light
1954 · Oil, enamel, and aluminum paint on canvas
Untitled
1953 · Ink and colored ink on paper (recto); Oil and gouache on paper (verso)
Easter and the Totem
1953 · Oil on canvas
Greyed Rainbow
1953 · Oil on linen
Exhibition Announcement, Betty Parsons Gallery, Nov. 26-Dec. 15, 1951
1951 · Screenprint
Echo: Number 25, 1951
1951 · Enamel paint on canvas
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Jackson Pollock
- Year
- 1946
- Medium
- Oil on linen
- Dimensions
- Unframed: 149.8 × 208.3 cm (59 × 82 1/16 in.); 149.9 × 208.3 cm (59 × 82 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1946-142360
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified