Untitled (4)

Jackson Pollock's semi-abstract engraving is one of a series of intaglio prints he produced in 1944-45 at Atelier 17 in New York. Pollock was one of a group of young American artists for whom Hayter's studio in exile became an important meeting place for the exchange of new ideas and technical innovations. There they also met émigré European artists, including such luminaries as Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, and André Masson. Though not editioned at the time, Pollock's intaglio prints of the mid-1940s are often cited as precursors to the fully resolved abstract style seen in his famous drip paintings. Pollock was fascinated with automatic drawing as practiced by Hayter, Masson and others. This spontaneous technique was well known among Dada artists of the early 20th century and later adopted by the surrealists as a way to reveal subconscious impulses. Unleashing his inner self, Pollock produced a frenzied arrangement of surrealist-inspired biomorphic forms interspersed with dynamic non-descriptive line.