COURTESY MATTHEW MARKS GALLERY
The Dallas Museum of Art has announced the acquisition of a Jackson Pollock sculpture created only weeks before the artist’s death. According to the DMA, Untitled (1956) is one of only six Pollock sculptures in existence, five of which are held in private collections. The sculpture is currently on view in the museum’s much-lauded show “Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots,” which runs until March 20.
In a statement, the interim director of the DMA, Walter Elcock, said:
“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. 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.”
The museum noted in a release that the artist created more than a dozen sculptures during his life, but many are lost or were destroyed by Pollock himself. Untitled (1956) was one of two sculptures created in the summer of 1956, when he was staying at the home of his friend Tony Smith. Because he was suffering from depression at the time, Pollock was unable paint, and instead produced a pair of abstract sculptures made of sand, plaster, wire, and gauze in a single weekend. These two sculptures are considered to be the last works Pollock ever created before dying in a car accident at the age of 44.
Acquired from the estate of Tony Smith, with support from the Gayle and Paul Stoffel Fund for Contemporary Art Acquisition, Untitled will be the third Pollock to enter the DMA’s permanent collection, along with his paintings Cathedral (1947) and Portrait and a Dream (1953).