Jackson Pollock
Water Birds
1942
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Jackson Pollock
Water Birds
1942
Physical Qualities
Oil on canvas, Framed: 27 1/2 x 22 1/2 x 1 3/4 in. (69.9 x 57.2 x 4.4 cm) Sight: 26 1/8 x 21 1/4 in. (66.4 x 54 cm)
Credit Line
Bequest of Saidie A. May
Object Number
1951.349
Here, the thin, poured loops of black paint and splashes of white on the flat areas of blue and turquoise might suggest the abstracted forms of birds flying over water. This early small-scale painting hints at the much larger immersive canvases Jackson Pollock would create later in his career.
In the early 1940s, Pollock experimented with dripping and swirling quick-drying paint onto a canvas, as influenced by ceremonial Diné (Navajo) sand painting, post-revolution Mexican mural painting, and European Surrealism. He stated, “It seems to me that the modern painter cannot express this age, the airplane,
the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or any other past culture. Each age finds its own technique.”
The Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest, 1951; The Baltimore Museum of Art on extended loan, 1948-1951; Saidie A. May by purchase, 1948; Betty Parsons Gallery, New York
Baltimore Museum of Art, "Saidie A. May Collection of Modern Paintings and Sculpture," March 17-April 16, 1950, no. 91.
Baltimore Museum of Art, "Baltimore Owned Paintings by Equity Artists," July 9- September 24, 1950.
Watkins Gallery, American University, Washington, D.C., "Abstract Expressionists," 1953.
Goucher College, Towson, MD, Arts Festival 1956.
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD, "Selections from the May Collection," September 27-October 31, 1957.
Wilmington Society of Fine Arts, October 1-22, 1959.
Robert Forth, Maryland Institute, Baltimore, "The Length and Breadth of Art," Dec. 2, 1958 - Jan. 23, 1959.
Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, "Abstract Expressionism," March 1973.
Baltimore Museum of Art, "Saidie A. May Collection," September 6-November 22, 1972, no. 50, p.50.
Museum of Modern Art, NY, "Jackson Pollock," November 1, 1998-February 2, 1999.
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, "Impressionism to Surrealism from the Baltimore Museum of Art. Selections from the Collection of Claribel and Etta Cone, Saidie Adler May and Blanche Adler," February 8 - April 21, 2002, cat. 41 p. 20, p.12 ill.
Darsie Alexander, Baltimore Museum of Art, "Robert Motherwell: Meanings of Abstraction," May 20, 2006 - July 30, 2006.
Baltimore Museum of Art, "Baltimore Owned Paintings by Equity Artists," July 9- September 24, 1950.
Watkins Gallery, American University, Washington, D.C., "Abstract Expressionists," 1953.
Goucher College, Towson, MD, Arts Festival 1956.
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD, "Selections from the May Collection," September 27-October 31, 1957.
Wilmington Society of Fine Arts, October 1-22, 1959.
Robert Forth, Maryland Institute, Baltimore, "The Length and Breadth of Art," Dec. 2, 1958 - Jan. 23, 1959.
Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, "Abstract Expressionism," March 1973.
Baltimore Museum of Art, "Saidie A. May Collection," September 6-November 22, 1972, no. 50, p.50.
Museum of Modern Art, NY, "Jackson Pollock," November 1, 1998-February 2, 1999.
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, "Impressionism to Surrealism from the Baltimore Museum of Art. Selections from the Collection of Claribel and Etta Cone, Saidie Adler May and Blanche Adler," February 8 - April 21, 2002, cat. 41 p. 20, p.12 ill.
Darsie Alexander, Baltimore Museum of Art, "Robert Motherwell: Meanings of Abstraction," May 20, 2006 - July 30, 2006.
The Baltimore Museum of Art News, “Catalogue of the Saidie A. May Collection of Modern Paintings and Sculpture,” March, 1950, cat. 91, p. 21.
Aline B. Louchheim, "Baltimore Bonanza," "New York Times," March 19, 1950.
"Baltimore Museum of Art News," February 1959, ill. cover.
"Art Gallery, 21 Pollock," New York: Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc. & Pocture Archive, 1985.
Susan Badder, "Introduction to the Baltimore Museum of Art," "Arts and Activities," San Diego, September 1989, p. 33, ill. p. 33.
"Jackson Pollock," New York: Pollock-Krasner Foundation, 1994, cat. 20.
Susan Helen Adler, "Saidie May Pioneer of Early 20th Century Collecting" Baltimore: Stonehouse Design, 2008, p. 230.
"60 Objects Countless Stories," BMA Today, Winter 2008 - 2009, pp. 6-7, ill. p. 6.
"Jackson Pollock's Murual: The Transitional Moment," Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2014, color ill. p. 23.
Robyn Lea, "Dinner with Jackson Pollock Recipes, Art & Nature", New York: Assouline Publishing, 2015.
Feigenbaum, Gail, ed. "Examining Pollock: Essays Inspired by the Mural Research Project." Special issue, Getty Research Journal no. 9s1 (2017).
Greeley, Robin Adele, Samantha Kavky, Oliver Shell, and Oliver Tostmann. "Monsters & Myths: Surrealism and War in the 1930s and 1940s." New York, NY: Rizzoli Electa in association with The Baltimore Museum of Art and Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 2018, ill.
Inscribed: Verso: bottom left, white paint, "Pollock 43"
On View at the BMA
