1950.87 Jackson Pollock, Cathedral, 1947, Enamel and aluminum paint on canvas

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Between 1947 and 1950, American painter Jackson Pollock perfected his revolutionary drip technique, deliberately layering paint in incisive compositions of the type seen here in Cathedral. He accomplished this "allover" composition by hovering over a piece of canvas stretched out on his studio floor where he poured, dripped, and flicked paint from the end of a brush or stick. Despite the perception that these actions represented an artist out of control, madly flinging his medium onto the canvas, Pollock was actually very thoughtful and premeditative about his creative process. He moved around and over the canvas in a type of dance, consciously creating compositions that were both elements in a radical new language, and also records of the performances that created them, a process that appropriately came to be known as 'action painting.'

Likened to the facade of a Gothic cathedral by the poet and curator Frank O'Hara, Cathedral's tight, yet dynamic interlacings of black, white, and silver also suggest an energy made visible; here Pollock has recorded in paint the actions that went into the work's very making. Space, form, color and depth of field all merge into one another to generate a dense, endlessly fascinating landscape-like plane of painterly vitality. By literally placing himself in the picture, and by creating abstract form from a profoundly simple fusion of physics and material, Pollock changed the course of art history, and opened a range of possibilities for later artists that led to the development of process art, performance art, earthworks, and other types of unconventional genres.

Cathedral was painted in 1947, the breakthrough year of Pollock's experimentation with drip painting, and it entered the Dallas Museum of Art's collection in 1950, the final year of this "classic" era of Pollock's career. Cathedral was one of the first of Pollock's paintings to enter any museum collection in the world. Pollock's works made during this time defined abstract expressionism, a movement that suggests a blend of abstract form and personal emotion, capturing the energy, ambition and power, as well as the introspection, and often angst and confusion of post–World War II culture in the United States.

Adapted from

Gavin Delahunty, ed. Assisted by Stephanie Straine, with essays by Jo Applin, Gavin Delahunty, Michael Fried and Stephanie Straine, Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots, (London: Tate Publishing), 2015, 32.
Charles Wylie, Label copy, Re-Seeing the Contemporary: Selected from the Collection, October 2010.

Charles Wylie, "Cathedral," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Charles Venable (New Haven, NJ: Yale University Press, 1997), 270-271.
Bonnie Pitman, ed., Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012), 291.
Charles Wylie, “Jackson Pollock's Cathedral,” in Dallas Museum of Art, 100 Years , ed. Dorothy M. Kosinski (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 2003), Pamphlet number 10.
DMA unpublished material.

NOTES

added accession numbers to Piction Workbench metadata, "related objects"
duplicate Charles Wylie excerpts with 1950.87 as related object in Piction, so will show up twice on OLC
updated provenance in TMS
updated geo x refs in TMS: speculated that this work was made in his East Hampton studio, based on date

Emily's notes:

From DMA research document, n.d., Education files.

Jackson Pollock

Cathedral

"On the floor, I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more a part ofthe painting, since this way

I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting.

Dynamic interlacings of black, white, silver, yellow, and orange are evidence of Jackson

Pollock's movement above and around his floor-based canvas. In his painting Cathedral,

Pollock has recorded his personal act of creation. Deliberately-placed flings, spurts, and

drips of paint resemble both the inside of an atom and the realm ofthe cosmic. Paintings

such as Cathedral define Abstract Expressionism, a movement that captured the energy,

ambition, and power as well as the introspection and often angst and confusion of U.S.

postwar culture.

Catalogue essays

Jackson Pollock's "Cathedral"

Dallas Museum of Fine Arts

Contemporary Art at the Dallas Museum of Art

Artist/designers

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)

Cultures

Geography

Process/materials

Historical periods

Individuals

Subject terms

Abstract Expressionism

RELATED OBJECTS

PROVENANCE

Before 1950: Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard J. Reis, Marlborough Gallery Inc., New York, NY [1]

From 1950: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard J. Reis [2]

[1] The main source for this provenance is a collection of letters from Mr. Reis to Director Jerry Bywaters, found in the Collections Records Object File 1950.87.

[2] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.

AUDIO ASSETS

13314236: UMO; Listen to Charles Wylie's 2001 lecture: Jackson Pollock Revisited.

28775581: UMO; short clip from Jackson Pollock Revisited 7/19/2001 (PollockRevisited.mp3); Discussing DMA Collection object Cathedral, 1950.87

44997381: UMO; mobi stop 721

VIDEO ASSETS

IMAGE ASSETS

Hans Namuth photography (all web restricted, but attaching just in case that ever changes)

251964848: UMO:

253366715: UMO

253366775: UMO

253388704: UMO; this image should be used as the CC primary image. has been tagged above with

WEB RESOURCES

SFMoMA~Watch archival footage of Jackson Pollock narrating and demonstrating his artistic process.
MoMA~Explore 86 works by Pollock at the Museum of Modern Art.
Khan Academy~Watch a short video about Jackson Pollock.
SAAM~See earlier works by Pollock.
DMA Uncrated Blog~Read "Preserving Pollock: A Conversation about Art Conservation."
DMA Uncrated Blog~Listen to an overview of "Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots" by curator Gavin Delahunty.
Pollock-Krasner Foundation~Explore the official website.

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

FUN FACTS

Cathedral is one of Pollock's early "drip paintings" and one of the first of his paintings to enter any museum collection in the world.
Since its acquisition in 1950, Cathedral has frequently traveled to museums and galleries all over the world, sometimes spending years at a time away from its home at the DMA. A Dallas Morning News article from July 10, 1960 refers to it as the "most widely-traveled work in DMFA's (then-Dallas Museum of Fine Art) permanent collection," and celebrates its homecoming to the 1960 State Fair. Starting in the 1970s, it has traveled with considerably less frequency, to protect it from wear and tear.
Pollock once said, "...my painting does not come from the easel. I hardly ever stretch my canvas before painting. I prefer to take the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or floor. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting... When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of "get acquainted" period that I see what I have been about... the painting has a life of its own..."

TEACHING IDEAS

TI Jackson Pollock, Cathedral

RULES

Apply to objects where number equals 1950.87

General Description

Between 1947 and 1950, American painter Jackson Pollock perfected his revolutionary drip technique, deliberately layering paint in incisive compositions of the type seen here in Cathedral. He accomplished this "allover" composition by hovering over a piece of canvas stretched out on his studio floor where he poured, dripped, and flicked paint from the end of a brush or stick. Despite the perception that these actions represented an artist out of control, madly flinging his medium onto the canvas, Pollock was actually very thoughtful and premeditative about his creative process. He moved around and over the canvas in a type of dance, consciously creating compositions that were both elements in a radical new language, and also records of the performances that created them, a process that appropriately came to be known as 'action painting.'

Likened to the facade of a Gothic cathedral by the poet and curator Frank O'Hara, Cathedral's tight, yet dynamic interlacings of black, white, and silver also suggest an energy made visible; here Pollock has recorded in paint the actions that went into the work's very making. Space, form, color and depth of field all merge into one another to generate a dense, endlessly fascinating landscape-like plane of painterly vitality. By literally placing himself in the picture, and by creating abstract form from a profoundly simple fusion of physics and material, Pollock changed the course of art history, and opened a range of possibilities for later artists that led to the development of process art, performance art, earthworks, and other types of unconventional genres.

Cathedral was painted in 1947, the breakthrough year of Pollock's experimentation with drip painting, and it entered the Dallas Museum of Art's collection in 1950, the final year of this "classic" era of Pollock's career. Cathedral was one of the first of Pollock's paintings to enter any museum collection in the world. Pollock's works made during this time defined abstract expressionism, a movement that suggests a blend of abstract form and personal emotion, capturing the energy, ambition and power, as well as the introspection, and often angst and confusion of post–World War II culture in the United States.

Adapted from

Gavin Delahunty, ed. Assisted by Stephanie Straine, with essays by Jo Applin, Gavin Delahunty, Michael Fried and Stephanie Straine, Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots, (London: Tate Publishing), 2015, 32.
Charles Wylie, Label copy, Re-Seeing the Contemporary: Selected from the Collection, October 2010.

Charles Wylie, "Cathedral," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Charles Venable (New Haven, NJ: Yale University Press, 1997), 270-271.
Bonnie Pitman, ed., Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012), 291.
Charles Wylie, “Jackson Pollock's Cathedral,” in Dallas Museum of Art, 100 Years , ed. Dorothy M. Kosinski (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 2003), Pamphlet number 10.
DMA unpublished material.

Fun Facts

Cathedral is one of Pollock's early "drip paintings" and one of the first of his paintings to enter any museum collection in the world.
Since its acquisition in 1950, Cathedral has frequently traveled to museums and galleries all over the world, sometimes spending years at a time away from its home at the DMA. A Dallas Morning News article from July 10, 1960 refers to it as the "most widely-traveled work in DMFA's (then-Dallas Museum of Fine Art) permanent collection," and celebrates its homecoming to the 1960 State Fair. Starting in the 1970s, it has traveled with considerably less frequency, to protect it from wear and tear.
Pollock once said, "...my painting does not come from the easel. I hardly ever stretch my canvas before painting. I prefer to take the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or floor. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting... When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of "get acquainted" period that I see what I have been about... the painting has a life of its own..."

Archival Resources

Web Resources

SFMoMA~Watch archival footage of Jackson Pollock narrating and demonstrating his artistic process.
MoMA~Explore 86 works by Pollock at the Museum of Modern Art.
Khan Academy~Watch a short video about Jackson Pollock.
SAAM~See earlier works by Pollock.
DMA Uncrated Blog~Read "Preserving Pollock: A Conversation about Art Conservation."
DMA Uncrated Blog~Listen to an overview of "Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots" by curator Gavin Delahunty.
Pollock-Krasner Foundation~Explore the official website.

Notes

added accession numbers to Piction Workbench metadata, "related objects"
duplicate Charles Wylie excerpts with 1950.87 as related object in Piction, so will show up twice on OLC
updated provenance in TMS
updated geo x refs in TMS: speculated that this work was made in his East Hampton studio, based on date