The Fury (section)

Come closer and let your gaze get lost in this dense knot of color. Jackson Pollock painted this piece in 1947, right as he was mastering the "drip" method that would make his name. Rather than standing at an easel with a brush, he spread the canvas across the floor and circled it, pouring and flicking paint down from above. He once described feeling like he could "be in the painting," working from every angle as though he had stepped inside the swirl. The finished surface is a thick weave of red, white, and black lines, sparked here and there by yellow and blue, with no obvious focal point to settle on.

The approach belongs to Abstract Expressionism, a movement that surged in New York after World War II and helped shift the center of the art world across the Atlantic. Pollock ended up its most debated star, hailed by some as a bold new voice and mocked by others who claimed a child could fling paint just as well. Trace the crossing loops and tangled threads, though, and a real sense of rhythm and motion starts to emerge. Nothing is being pictured here, only energy, feeling, and the record of an artist fully absorbed in the act of creating.