Untitled (Bald Woman with Skeleton)

Label

Finished in the midst of World War II, this painting reflects the scale of loss and death brought about by war. Naked and bald, the vulnerable woman in the center crouches over a skeletal figure. Masses of people surround her, yet we cannot make out their individual faces and it is unclear whether they are alive. In Jackson Pollock’s signature style, the painting is full of vigor, primary colors, and rapidly applied paints.

Experiencing acute alcoholism and depression, Pollock underwent Jungian psychotherapy while painting Untitled. Carl Jung emphasized the collective unconscious, a concept that hypothesized that human beings are connected through a shared set of experiences. As the artist was too depressed and inarticulate to speak, his doctor encouraged him to draw as a therapeutic aid. This work exemplifies how Pollock used painting as an extension of his therapy in order to grapple with the collective trauma and grief of war.

From the 2022 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 109, Nothing Gold Can Stay, curated by Amy Zaretsky '23, Conroy Intern

Course History

LATS 41, Representations of/from Latinos in the Media and the Arts, Douglas Moody, Spring 2012

ARTH 71, The “American Century”: Modern Art in the United States, Mary Coffey, Spring 2012

ARTH 16, LACS 48, Mexican Muralism, Mary Coffey, Spring 2012

ARTH 17, The Power of Place: Urban and Rural Images in American Art, 1900-1945, Sarah Powers, Winter 2014

ARTH 40.04, LACS 30.09, Mexicanidad: Constructing and Dismantling Mexican National Identity, Mary Coffey, Winter 2019

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 109, Nothing Gold Can Stay, Amy Zarestky, Class of 2023, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 29 October - 23 December 2022

American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 9-December 9, 2007.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 27, 2007-May 8, 2007.

Men of Fire, Jose Clemente Orozco and Jackson Pollock, Friends-Cheatham Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 7-June 17, 2012; Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, East Hampton, New York, August 2-October 27, 2012.

Translating Revolution: U.S. Artists Interpret Mexican Muralism, National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 12-August 1, 2010.

Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925-1945, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, February 14-March 14, 2020; September 3, 2020-January 31, 2021.

Publication History

Brian P. Kennedy, Pollock and Dartmouth: A Visual Encounter, Hood Museum of Art Quarterly, Hanover, New Hampshire: Dartmouth College, Spring 2007, p.6, ill.

Barbara J. MacAdam, American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Muesum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2007, p. 106-107, no. 81.

Barbara J. MacAdam, Building on Dartmouth's Historic American Collections: Hood Museum of Art Acquisitions since 1985, The Magazine Antiques, November 2007, New York: Brant Publications, color ill. p. 146.

Pinacotheque de Paris; Mickie Klein, Stephen Polcari, Marc Restellini, William Rubin, Jackson Pollock: Et Le Chamanisme, Paris, FRANCE: 28, Place de la Madeleine 76008 Paris, 2008, 266 pp., color ills. pp. 122-127.

Mary K. Coffey, Sharon Lorenzo, Lisa Mintz Messinger, Stephen Polcari, Men of Fire, Jose Clemente Orozco and Jackson Pollock, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2012, ill. p. x.

Edoardo Piersensini, La scienza e l'informe in America (1929-1956), Pacini Editore, Pisa Ospedaletto, 2013: ill. p. 234.

Barbara Haskell, Vida Americana, Mexican Muralist Remake American Art, 1925-1945, New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2020, ill. p. 79, no. 32.

Provenance

Joan T. Washburn Gallery, New York, New York; sold to present collection, 2006.

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