Before creating his vibrant drip paintings, Jackson Pollock was inspired by Pablo Picasso

Jackson Pollock is known for creating expressive and dynamic drip paintings that explore movement and masculinity. But before that, the American artist experimented with other styles for years.

The works of art that Pollock painted during his early career were very different from the works of art that would later achieve international fame. Now an exhibition in France highlights paintings from this lesser-known chapter of Pollock’s artistic development – ​​and works by artists who inspired him, such as Pablo Picasso.

“Jackson Pollock: The Early Years‘ is currently on view in the Picasso Museum in Paris. Featuring approximately 100 works of art, the exhibition focuses on the period between 1938 (when Pollock began experimenting with new styles) and 1947 (when he created his first drip paintings).

“The aim is to provide a detailed account of these years, which were both the laboratory of his work and of his myth, by recovering the artistic and intellectual context from which both were nourished,” the museum says in a statement.

Born in Wyoming in 1912, Pollock was the youngest of five boys. The family, struggling financially, was always on the road, and Pollock grew up primarily in Arizona and California. When he was 18, he moved across the country to join his older brother Charles League for art students in New York, where he spent years absorbing the city’s vibrant cultural scene.

Pollock’s brother introduced him to Picasso’s art, as exhibition co-curator Joanne Snrech explains. Deutsche Presse-Agentur. Ultimately, he was able to view many of the Spanish painter’s works in person.

“Pollock was very sensitive to Picasso’s work, especially in the late 1930s and early 1940s, after seeing Picasso’s work. Guernica [1937]together with a large number of his works and preparatory drawings, in a major edition of 1939 [Museum of Modern Art] exhibition, and just before that an exhibition in the Valentine Gallery in New York,” says co-curator Orane Stalpers Artnet‘S Devorah Lauter. “In Pollock’s work we can see how he deconstructed figures and used geometric lines to evoke these forms from Picasso’s oeuvre.”

In addition to Picasso, the exhibition explores Pollock’s other early influences as he dabbled in surrealism, studied Mexican muralists and made psychoanalytic drawings on the advice of his therapist. The show features a variety of artists who played a crucial role in Pollock’s success, including John D. Graham, André Masson, Janet Sobel and Pollock’s wife, Lee Krasner.

While it may seem unusual for the Picasso Museum to host a Pollock show, the exhibition is part of an effort to demonstrate the extensive influence the Cubist painter has had on artists around the world.

“In this way it is possible to open the museum to other figures and other objects, and to build around Picasso multiple approaches, both cultural and artistic, that are relevant to our own time,” says Cecile Debraypresident of the Picasso Museum, in the statement.

“Jackson Pollock: The Early Years”, is on display at the Picasso Museum in Paris until January 19, 2025.