Silver and Black

Few artists’ works are as easily recognizable as those of Jackson Pollack. His Action Painting, a trailblazing technique unique to Pollack, is perfectly exemplified in Silver and Black. Action Painting was an overt example of the artist ignoring as many of the traditional techniques of painting—beginning with the abolition of the easel.

Pollack preferred to lay his canvases on the floor and to use sticks, knives, and other objects to drip and spatter paint from over the piece. What makes his work so innovative is that his energetic method created a synthesis between the artist process and the piece of work. As he moved, his artistic process indelibly fused with the piece. And, because he seldom actually touched the canvas, his physical actions, thoughts, and the space between culminated in a kind of performance art frozen in time.

Pollack became the most influential member of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism.