The Dallas Museum of Art recently announced their acquisition of a rare sculpture by the late Jackson Pollock. The sculpture, Untitled (1956), was created weeks before Pollock?s death, and is one of six pieces in existence. Untitled, is currently on view in an exhibition dedicated to Pollock at the DMA closing this Sunday, March 20.
?The DMA has long played an important role in showcasing the legacy of Jackson Pollock, from becoming one of the first American museums to acquire his paintings to being the first in nearly 50 years to exhibit his influential black paintings series,? said the DMA?s Interim Director Walter Elcock. ?We are deeply grateful to Gayle and Paul Stoffel for their support of this acquisition, which makes the DMA one of only two museums in the world to hold a portion of Pollock?s surviving work as a sculptor.?
Pollock is known for his ?drip? paintings. He created many sculptures during his iconic career but later destroyed them himself. The remaining sculptures represent the artist?s unique techniques and create a better understanding of his practice. The surviving sculpture is one of six created over a weekend when Pollock was struggling with depression and unable to paint while staying at the home of his friend and contemporary Tony Smith. It is believed that these six sculptures?imbued with sand, plaster, wire and gauze?are the last pieces created by Pollock before his death.
With the help of The Gayle and Paul Stoffel Fund for Contemporary Art Acquisition, the sculpture was acquired by the museum from the Tony Smith Estate. Untitled will join two other works by Pollock in the DMA?s modern and contemporary holdings.
?Even as his work as a painter transformed the landscape of 20th-century art, Jackson Pollock repeatedly returned to sculpture throughout his career as a means of investigating the liberating qualities of non-traditional forms and materials,? said Gavin Delahunty, the DMA?s Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art. ?The receipt of this rarely exhibited work into our collection represents a perfect capstone to our ongoing exhibition of Pollock?s black paintings series, itself a step toward our understanding of another under-examined vein in the artist?s practice.?