Full Fathom Five by Jackson Pollock in the Museum of Modern Art, May 2010

Jackson Pollock
Full Fathom Five
1947

Medium: Oil on canvas with nails, tacks, buttons, key, coins, cigarettes, matches, etc.

Dimensions: 50 7/8 x 30 1/8" (129.2 x 76.5 cm)

Credit: Gift of Peggy Guggenheim

Object number: 186.1952

Copyright: © 2024 Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Department: Painting and Sculpture

The work is a bridge between Pollock’s previous approach, in which he used an easel, and his break with traditional painting methods. Though he began this painting on an easel, he ultimately completed it on the floor. Using a paintbrush and palette knife, he built up layers of paint into which he embedded detritus including a key, cigarettes, and nails. Eventually, he took the canvas off of the easel, placed it on the floor, and dripped black and silver enamels over its entire surface. For Pollock, this deceptively simple move opened up an entirely new set of creative possibilities that he would spend the following years exploring in some of his most celebrated work. This is one of the first paintings in which he used his “drip” method, and in which he extended his marks across the entire surface of the canvas, creating what became known as an allover composition. Though he had been pursuing abstraction since 1945, it was not until 1947 that he embraced the radical technique that would become his signature style.-
Additional text from In The Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting online course, Coursera, 2017

Text from: www.moma.org/collection/works/79070