The Japanese Society for Aesthetics

Aesthetics No.21 (2018): 45-54

Oriental Calligraphy in Jackson Pollock:
A Study of the Formation of the Black Paintings
KAKEI Nanako

Kyoto University, Kyoto

Preface
In Formless: A User’s Guide, Yve-Alain Bois and Rosalind E. Krauss note that Edward
Ruscha and Cy Twombly were influenced by Pollock in their drawing of diagrams, graffiti andletters in their works [1]. The main point of this discussion is the opposition between theverticality of pictures and the horizontality of letters. Typically, pictures are hung on a wall andlooked at vertically, while letters are read on a desk horizontally. Yet when Pollock worked, helaid the canvas horizontally on the floor. Bois and Krauss claimed that this style of production
inspired those artists who came after Pollock to depict signs and letters in their works. However,I would argue that Pollock’s paintings possess not just horizontality, but also the textual
properties of letters themselves as a result of the possible influence of oriental calligraphy on the“black paintings” which he painted in his later years.
The black paintings can be defined as the
monochrome paintings of 1951-53 [fig. 1]. Pollock
painted these using the “pouring” technique, that is,pouring paints from hardened brushes or sticks. This
technique was also used in the “all-over” paintings, but
the black paintings differ in the way the representational images can be found in the black paintings. In
addition, they are painted on Japanese paper and raw
canvas, surfaces on which paint runs. Based on these[fig. 1] No. 8, 1951 / “Black Flowing,”
1951, Enamel on canvas, 151×
aspects of production, it can be proposed that the black
185cm, National Museum of
paintings were influenced by oriental calligraphy, but
Western Art
there has been little study done so far.
The main objective of this paper is to prove the relationship between Pollock and oriental
calligraphy, and to clarify what kind of influence it had on the formation of the black paintings.
In the first section, I consider why there has been little study done on this topic by considering
the social and other contexts of American art at the time. In the second section, I consider why
Pollock and other abstract expressionist painters were influenced by oriental calligraphy. In thelast section, I clarify what influence had oriental calligraphy had on the formation of the black
paintings.

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KAKEI Nanako

1. Modernism, the Formation of American Painting, and the Rejection of Oriental Art
In this section, I will examine the social and other contexts of America at the time Pollock
was working, so as to clarify the reasons why there have been few studies concerning therelationship between Pollock and calligraphy. In addition, I claim that the influence on Pollockof oriental art was suppressed by critics in the same age.
From the end of the 19th century, the American government started many cultural policies
aimed at the formation of a national culture, including art. Through these policies, thegovernment imported foreign art actively, including many oriental art works as a means ofcomparison with the predominant arts of Europe. Many Japanese art works were also imported.
At the same time, there was increasing interest in America in Japanese thought, especially Zen,after the introduction of Buddhism at the international religious conference of 1893.
Allied victory in World War II brought increasing global power for the United States; andcultural hegemony was sought as a means to show that the country had not only military force
and material civilization, but also culture [2]. As part of this movement, an imperative task wasto construct American national cultural forms. Clement Greenberg, an influential critic who
wrote much cultural criticism at the time, seems to have supported this shift to an increasingly
self-confident acknowledgment of American culture. While he agreed that previously the central
place of culture had been France, in 1947 he claimed that the new artistic generation of France
was inferior to American [3]. Therefore he declared, a year later in 1948, that “the main premisesof Western art have at last migrated to the United States, along with the center of gravity ofindustrial production and political war” [4].
In his criticism, Greenberg announced Pollock as the most important artist of the new
American art generation. In an article entitled “’American-Type’ Painting,” he claimed Pollock
was influenced by Pablo Picasso, and that the all-over paintings developed the flatness of Cubist
paintings [5]. He proposed Pollock as a legitimate successor of European modernism because hewanted to show that the art center had moved from Europe to America.
However, considering this movement from another perspective, it is clear that there was an
excluded figure. That is the influence of oriental culture. Oriental culture was imported into
America from the end of the 19th century into the 20th century, and therefore, some American
artists became interested in oriental art and Zen [6].
Examples of these artists include Mark Tobey and Franz Kline. Tobey studied in China andJapan in 1930s. He learned meditation and calligraphy, especially at Tenryuji in Kyoto, Japan.
Adopting the style of oriental calligraphy into his works, he created the first all-over painting in
America in the mid-1940s. Judging from Pollock’s letter to his friend, it is clear that thesepaintings influenced Pollock [7].
Kline began to paint monochrome pictures from 1950. Those pictures were similar tooriental calligraphy [8]. He communicated with the “Bokujin-kai” [9], an avant-garde calligraphygroup in Japan, initially praising their works in a letter to Saburo Hasegawa, a member of thegroup [10]. However, Kline changed his attitude, and denied the influence of oriental calligraphy
after 1956. Bert Winther-Tamaki argues that he was under pressure from critics, especiallyGreenberg [11], who denied that oriental calligraphy influenced the artists of Abstract

Oriental Calligraphy in Jackson Pollock

47

Expressionism:
Kline’s unmistakable allusions to Chinese and Japanese calligraphy encouraged the cant,already started by Tobey’s example, about a general Oriental influence on American abstract
painting. Yet none of the leading abstract expressionists except Kline has shown more thana cursory interest in Oriental art. [12]Here, Greenberg suggests that Tobey was influenced by oriental calligraphy, while he claims that
Kline was not. However, as Winther-Tamaki reveals, this paragraph was in the revision editionin 1958, and the original edition in 1955 actually read as follows:
Not one of the Original ‘abstract expressionists’―least of all Kline―has felt more than acursory interest in Oriental art. The sources of their art lie entirely in the West. [13]From the above, it is clear that Greenberg was already arguing against the influence oforiental art on Kline in 1955. And it was in the following year that Kline began to deny oriental
art. Many critics who denied the influence of the Orient, not only Greenberg but also FrankO’Hara and Lawrence Alloway, quoted this remark of Kline’s quickly. Winther-Tamaki suggeststhat the reason Kline began to deny his connection to oriental art was in order to shield himself
against Greenberg’s influential criticism [14], because Tobey’s works which were clearly
influenced by the Orient had received a cold reception in America.
Greenberg aimed to locate Abstract Expressionism as the legitimate successor to European
modernism, and show that the center of art had shifted from Europe to America. He excluded
the influence of the Orient for that purpose. Although Winther-Tamaki does not consider Pollock
himself in detail, recognising Greenberg’s intent, I argue that it is likely that Greenberg musthave also denied the influence of the Orient on Pollock as well, because Greenberg recognized
Pollock as the representative of Abstract Expressionism. Certainly, Greenberg firmly denied thatTobey influenced Pollock [15], and he claimed that Pollock’s black paintings were different fromthe all-over paintings [16].
While Rosalind Krauss recalled that Greenberg said “by 1952 Pollock had ‘lost his stuff.’”[17], she appraised Pollock’s black paintings as follows:
The work, his 1951 black and white show, marking his definitive break with the drip pictures,
signaled the beginning of the end of both his art and his life. [18]Their arguments about Pollock have continued to have a large influence until the presentday. Under these circumstances, the black paintings have been underappreciated. Moreover, theinfluence of oriental calligraphy on Pollock has been overlooked.
In fact, there are many artists who was influenced by oriental calligraphy. In the next
paragraph, I consider why American artists of the time accepted oriental calligraphy. In addition,
I prove that Pollock adopted the method of oriental calligraphy in his works in terms of his
friendships and drawing materials.

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KAKEI Nanako

2. Oriental Calligraphy in Abstract Expressionism and Pollock
In the preceding section, I considered how modernist criticism such as Greenberg’s
excluded the influence of oriental art on American art. However, a number of previous studies
have pointed out the influence of oriental calligraphy on Abstract Expressionism; for example,
Barbara Rose and David J. Clark described about relationships between Abstract Expressionism
and Japanese calligraphy, but they did not look at Pollock in detail [19]. I will clarify how Pollock
became interested in oriental calligraphy in terms of his friendship and his interest in the letter.
Then I consider Pollock’s statements and drawing materials in order to he adopted the methodof oriental calligraphy in his works.
Rose and Clark mention Robert Motherwell and Willem de Kooning as two artists who were
influenced by oriental calligraphy. Why were these two artists influenced by oriental calligraphy?
Rose writes that “Turning away from Europe toward the Orient was one way of declaring artistic
independence” [20]. Japanese calligraphy was thus a means for artists to transcend European
art. Clark focuses on those American artists were influenced by European surrealism. He argues
these American artists and European surrealists shared aesthetic features such as “emphasizing
a spontaneous execution” [21]. Therefore, he explained the reason why American artists adopted
the method of oriental calligraphy.
Calligraphy combines the emphasis on spontaneity in surrealist automatism with a more
conscious approach and one which makes accommodations to the idea of artistic beauty. [22]These American artists thought oriental calligraphy was the key to developing the methods ofsurrealism into beauty.
Motherwell was the most important artist related to Pollock. He specialized in philosophy
at Harvard University. Therefore, he approached art as method and practice. He repeatedsurrealistic experiments in the 1940s, but gradually stopped and adopted the method of oriental
calligraphy. He had interest in Zen calligraphy, similar to Tobey, and collected the works of Zen
priests such as Sengai or Torei-Enji [23].
Pollock had a friendship with Motherwell for a long while. There is no previous researchwhich points out their relationship in terms of the influence of oriental calligraphy, but it is clearthat they read the same book about oriental culture: Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel[24] which was introduced by Daisetz Suzuki to America in 1953. Herrigel explains theimportance of Zen in oriental archery, and the principles of oriental aesthetic sense through thepractice of writing calligraphy or making ink wash paintings. Motherwell said he was greatly
impressed by this book in an interview [25]. Pollock also obtained it soon after its release. This
fact suggests that, similar to Motherwell, Pollock was interested in oriental art at the time.
Another factor for Pollock’s possible interest in oriental calligraphy is his strong interest in
the image of the letter. He showed this interest remarkably in works from 1943. He drewfrequently numbers, marks, letters of the Roman alphabet, Native American pictographs, andletters of the Arabic alphabet around this time [26]. In addition, Pollock’s biography describes
he had a relationship with a Japanese family in his childhood, and he was fascinated by JapaneseOriental Calligraphy in Jackson Pollock

49

letters in newspapers and magazines [27].
It can be deduced from the above that Pollock continued to have a strong interest in theimage of the letter. Pollock was not fascinated by the signification of letters, but rather wasconcerned by its visual appearance. If a figure stands in a line according to some kind of rule,
this figure is recognized as a letter, even though it is unreadable. Pollock drew such images. For
example, he drew pictographs which probably imitated Native American pictographs in CR612v(1939-42). These pictographs were lined in four rows. Moreover, in Stenographic Figure (1942),
Pollock also drew numbers, marks and alphabets which do not have any specific meaning.
Taking this interest of Pollock’s into account, it would not be surprising that he also adopted
methods from oriental calligraphy. In fact, he used Japanese papers and India ink given by afriend in 1950 [28]; and in the following year, he made 19 paintings with this paper and ink.
These paintings’ images are similar to oriental calligraphy, in that they comprise individual blacklines. Also, in an 1950 interview, Pollock discussed the reason for laying his canvas on the floor:“I paint on the floor and this isn’t unusual―the Orientals did that.” [29] It is unclear what Pollock
meant by “Oriental artist,” however, in terms of his surroundings and drawing materials, it might
be suggested that he was referring to methods of production used in oriental calligraphy.
From the above, it seems possible to propose that oriental calligraphy would become an
important factor in the production of the black paintings after 1951. How did Pollock adopt themethod of oriental calligraphy in order to create these paintings? In the next section, I consider
this point.

3. The Formation of the Black Paintings
It is unclear why Pollock began to draw representational images in 1951, which is the central
question in considering the production process of the black paintings. Lee Krasner, Pollock’s wife,
discussed the matter as follows:
Many of them [black paintings], many of the most abstract, began with more or lessrecognizable imagery―heads, parts of the body, fantastic creatures. Once I asked Jackson
why he didn’t stop the painting when a given image was exposed. He said, ‘I choose to veil
the imagery”. Well, that was that painting. With the black-and whites he chose mostly to
expose the imagery. I can’t say why. [30]In this statement, she makes two important points. One is that the all-over paintings wereformed by veiling representational images, and the other is that such images were revealed
without veil in the black paintings.
Pepe Karmel’s work has proved the first point. He analyzed the films about the production
process of the all-over paintings using Adobe Photoshop, and reproduced the first layer of the
all-over paintings. This shows that Pollock drew not webbed lines but representational images
individually in the first layer [31].
Karmel insists that these images in the first layer are similar to images in previous drawingsof Pollock. This argument is useful for considering the representational images of the black

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KAKEI Nanako

paintings. Pollock discussed the black paintings as follows in1951:
I’ve had a period of drawing on canvas in black―with someof my early images coming thru―think the nonobjectivists will find them disturbing―and the kids who
think it simple to splash a Pollock out. [32]In this statement, Pollock suggests that he used his “early
images” in the black paintings, that is, the images in the first[fig. 2] Echo: No. 25, 1951,
layer of the all-over paintings and black-paintings were his
Enamel on canvas, 233.4×“early images.”
218.4cm, New York Museum
Taking Pollock’s own statements into account, Ben Hellerof Modern Art
insisted that the black paintings were based on drawings from
1939-42. Heller detected the same figures in Echo: No. 25,
1951 [fig. 2] and Untitled from 1939-42 [fig. 3] [33]. There is
the standing figure turned to the right in the right segment of
Echo: No. 25, 1951. The curve of the chest and abdomen, andthe long triangle line of arm and hand of this figure is similar
to the right-center section of Untitled.
Many figures in the drawings from 1939-42 were inspired
by Native American pictographs [34]. The black paintings also
adopted the properties of such figures. That is, Pollock
arranged these figures in parallel, and painted between those.
[fig. 3] Untitled, 1939-42, Black
This inference is proved by a comparison between Untitledindia ink on paper, 45.7×
from 1943 [fig. 4] and No. 9, 1951 from 1951 [fig. 5]. In
35.2cm, Whitney Museum of
Untitled from 1943, the reddish brown paper was pasted on theAmerican Art
paper in which Pollock drew line
images in the top-right section. On
the reddish brown paper, Pollock
drew images similar to pictographs,
and painted between the images.
These properties appear in most of
the black paintings, including No. 9,
1951. In No. 9, 1951, Pollock drew
individual images in parallel at first,
and then painted between these inblack paint. In this respect, the black[fig. 4] Untitled, 1943, Collage[fig. 5] No. 9, 1951,of colored papers withpaintings have similar properties to1951, Enamel onbrush, pen and ink, crayon,
canvas,previous images such as the use ofand colored pencil brushed
145.1×97.8cm,
pictographs.
with water, 39.4×34.6cm,
Private collection
Private collection
From the above, it is clear that

Oriental Calligraphy in Jackson Pollock

51

Pollock drew representational images
based on past drawings in the firstlayer of the all-over paintings and theblack paintings, just as Krasner said.
Why then did Pollock began to stop
veiling such images in the black
paintings?
It should be noted that Pollock
tried to extract some images from the
all-over paintings. For example, in
Untitled (Cut Out) [fig. 6], Pollock[fig. 6] Untitled (Cut Out), [fig. 7] Untitled (Silver andBlack II), 1950, Oil on
1948-50, Oil on cut-out
intended to make the new image by
canvas, 52.1×38.1cm,
paper mounted on canvas,
cutting the canvas [35]. This attempt
Private collection
77.3×57cm, Ohara Museumof Artwas developed further in Untitled(Silver and Black II) [fig. 7]. This
works reveals clearly the black image. This image also used brush techniques of stopping andfading similar to the stroke formations of oriental calligraphy.
Pollock began to draw such images independently without veiling after this work. For
example, three black line images were arranged horizontally in Untitled [fig. 8]. This work has
been interpreted in comparison with oriental calligraphy [36], especially in terms of thesimilarity in brush strokes. Pollock drew these images frequently around 1950 [37]. These
images are similar to the form of a letter, because these are composed of lines produced
according to some kind of rule. Moreover, Pollock diluted the paint intentionally so that the ink
would bleed in ways similar to oriental calligraphy. Therefore, the image which Pollock tried tocreate through the pouring of paint-webs appeared like strokes of oriental calligraphy in 1950.
Works such as Untitled (Silver and Black II) [fig. 7] and Untitled [fig. 8] can not be classified
into all-over paintings or black paintings, and there are few preceding studies which madereference to these works. However, these works had great importance in the process of formationof the black paintings. The images in these works have a common point with the images in theblack paintings, that is, they both contain letter-like images. From 1951, Pollock gradually
stopped drawing oriental calligraphic images, but reproduced images like pictographs. It can bethus be suggested that Pollock developed a new method of drawing through the intermediary oforiental calligraphy in order to draw the images, such as pictographs, which he ultimately wanted.
Pollock is different from other artists who adopted the methods of oriental calligraphy,
because Pollock adopted it as a means of writing letters. For example, Kline and Motherwell
thought that it is important to draw not only black images, but also white images, because they
intended to express the “void,”
understood as an oriental
aesthetic using negative space.
It is clear that they recognized[fig. 8] Untitled, 1950, Enamel on paper, 28.2×150cm,
oriental calligraphy as a
Staatsgaleriemethod of drawing a space

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KAKEI Nanako

rather than writing a letter [38]. Pollock drew black lines only, and used raw canvases without
under coating. Therefore, the black paintings do not express space, but rather express theflatness that resulted from delineating the images individually. The unique properties of
Pollock’s black paintings were created by his enthusiasm for the letter.

Conclusion
This paper has shown how Pollock was influenced by oriental calligraphy. In addition, thispaper has considered how such influence relates to the formation of the black paintings.
Consequently, it was explained that critics who wanted to construct an American-type painting
suppressed the influence of oriental calligraphy on American artists, including Pollock. As thispaper has argued, however, Pollock’s relationship with other artists and his drawing materials
are evidence that Pollock was directly influenced by oriental calligraphy. Furthermore, this paper
had discussed Pollock’s enthusiasm for the letter. Because of such enthusiasm, he adopted themethod of oriental calligraphy into his works, and created the new black paintings.
This paper thus proposes new ways to interpret the unfinished collage works. Untitled (CutOut) [fig. 7] is composed of an all-over painting with a figure
cut out of it and another canvas sticking out from the reverse.
Timothy Clark has proved that this back of the canvas wasmade not by Pollock, but by Krasner after his death [39]. Clark
pointed out the original works was photographed in a studio
photo shot a week after Pollock’s death. This photo shows
Black and White Painting II [fig. 9] behind the all-overpainting. Tetsuya Oshima insisted on the necessity of
reinterpreting Untitled (Cut Out) [40], but did not yet do this.
This paper has argued that Pollock made visible an image
similar to a calligraphic letter under webbed lines. Even
[fig. 9] Black and Whitein Untitle (Cut Out), Pollock revealed the black painting from
Painting II, 1951, Oil on
the cut-out hole of the all-over painting. That is, Pollock wascanvas, 87.6×77.8cm,
Private collection
consistently trying to reveal black images influenced by oriental
calligraphy from under the webbed linear field.
The reason why Pollock veiled his representational images by pouring lines over themshould be studied further. However, it can be seen in the change from the all-over paintings tothe black paintings that Pollock highly regarded this re-emergence of past images. In a letterfrom 1951, Pollock wrote that “I have been making some drawings on Japanese paper―and feel
good about them” [41]. Oriental calligraphy was obviously an important opportunity for Pollock
to return to and reevaluate these images.

Notes
[1]

Cf. Yve-Alain Bois and Rosalind E. Krauss, L’informe: mode d’emploi, Paris: Centre Georges
Pompidou, 1996.

Oriental Calligraphy in Jackson Pollock

[2]
[3]

[4]
[5]
[6]

[7]
[8]
[9]

[10]
[11]

[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]

[20]
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]

[27]
[28]

53

Cf. Taisuke Katayama, America no Geijutsu Bunka Seisaku, Nihon Keizai Hyoron Sha, 2006.
Cf. Clement Greenberg, « Review of the Exhibition Painting in France, 1939-1946 » (1947), The
Collected Essays and Criticism, ed. John O’Brain, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, vol. 2,
1986, p. 128.
Greenberg, « The Decline of Cubism » (1948), 1986, p. 215.
Clement Greenberg, « ’American-Type’ Painting » (1955), Partisan Review, Boston: Boston
University, 1955 Spring, pp. 179-196.
Bunpei Tamiya pointed out that Zen calligraphy and Zen painting brought by officers after WorldWar II were important influence on the formation of Abstract Expressionism. (Bunpei Tamiya,« Morita Siryu “Ryu-Chi-Ryu” », Zen Nihon Bijutu Shinbun, Zen Nihon Bijutu Shinbun Sha, March
10, 2010, p. 2.)
Cf. Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, Jackson Pollock: an American saga, New York: C.N.
Potter: Distributed by Crown Publishers, 1989, pp. 525-526.
Cf. Alfred Barr Jr., « Abstract Art around the World Today », American Abstract Artists, New York.
Art association, 1954.
Bokujin-Kai is a group of avant-garde calligraphers which was established by Shiryu Morita andothers in 1951. They were influenced by Sengai’s works, and pursued the abstract expression ofletters. (Cf. Kasajima Tadayuki, Nihon Bijutu niokeru “Sho” no Zoukei Shi, Kasama Shoin, 2013.)
Cf. Bokubi, Bokubi Sha, No. 1, 1951.
Cf. Bert Winther-Tamaki, « The Japanese Margins of American Abstract Expression » Art in theencounter of nations: Japanese and American artists in the early postwar years, Honolulu:
University of Hawai'i Press, 2001.
Clement Greenberg, « ’American-Type’ Painting » (1958), Art and Culture, Boston: Beacon Press,
1961, p. 220.
Greenberg 1955, p. 188.
Cf. Tamaki 2001, p. 58.
Cf. Greenberg 1993, pp. 217-218.
Cf. Greenberg 1961, p. 228.
Rosalind E. Krauss, The Optical Unconscious, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1993, p. 251.
Krauss,1993, pp. 254-255.
Barbara Rose, « Japanese Calligraphy and American Expressionism », Words in motion: modern
Japanese calligraphy, Tokyo: Yomiuri Shimbun, 1984, pp. 38-43. David J. Clark, The influence ofOriental thought on postwar American painting and sculpture, London: Garland Pub, 1988.
These critics differ from Greenberg. Rose, like Greenberg, intends to make a differentiation
between European and American art, but she insists conversely on the influence of oriental
calligraphy on American art. Clark discusses the subject objectively in terms of Britain.
Rose 1984, p. 39.
Clark 1988, p. 200.
Clark 1988, p. 205.
It is possible that Pollock referred to Zen calligraphy in terms of his friendship with Motherwell.
Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery, Translated by R. F. C. Hull, New York: Pantheon, 1953.
Robert Motherwell, « Interview with Richard Wagener », Collected Writings of Robert Motherwell,edited by Stephane Terenzio, 1974, p. 220.
In CR586, 634v, 645r, 888, Pollock drew Arabic letters. Pollock have strong interest in Islamic
Calligraphy. (Cf. Jackson Pollock: a catalogue raisoneé of paintings, drawings, and other works,
edited by Francis Valentine O’Connor and Eugen Victor Thaw; vol. 1-4: Connecticut, Yale
University Press, 1978.)
Cf. Naifeh and Smith 1989, p. 55.
Cf. Naifeh and Smith 1989, p. 667.

54

[29]
[30]
[31]
[32]
[33]
[34]

[35]

[36]
[37]
[38]

[39]
[40]
[41]

KAKEI Nanako

Jackson Pollock, “Jackson Pollock, Interview with William Wright” (1951), Jackson Pollock
Interviews, Articles and Reviews, New York: The Museum Of Modern Art, 1999, p. 21.
Pollock, « An Interview with Lee Krasner Pollock by B. H. Friedman » (1969), 1999, p. 36. [ ] wasmade by the present writer.
Cf. Pepe Karmel, « Pollock at work: The Films and Photographs of Hans Namuth », Jackson
Pollock, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1998, pp. 108-109.
Jackson Pollock: a catalogue raisonné of paintings, drawings, and other works, vol. 4, 1978, p.
261.
Ben Heller, Jackson Pollock; Black Enamel Paintings, New York: Gagosian Gallery, 1990, p. 14.
Pollock had strong interest in Native American culture since he was young. These pictographs
conveyed the national history. Animal or figure pictographs were disposed in parallel. Jackson
Rushing pointed out that Pollock’s images are similar to Native American pictographs which were
published in the Bureau of American Ethnology report, and exhibited in Indian Art of the United
America. Pollock had this book and saw this exhibition. (Cf. W. Jackson Rushing, « Native
American Culture and Abstract Expressionism », The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 18901985, Los Angeles: Country Museum of Art & New York: Abbeville Press, 1986, p. 284.)
CR194 [White Cockatoo, No. 24A, 1948, 1948], CR251 [Out of the web, No. 7, 1949, 1949],
CR1032-33 [Untitled (Rhythmical Dance), 1948] and CR1035 [Untitled (Shadow, No. 2, 1948),
1948] were similar to property of Untitled (Cut Out), 1948.
Cf. Tetsuya Oshima, « Pollock no Mikata Oshiemasu », Geijutsu Shincho, Shincho Sha, March,
2012, p. 27.
35 works were confirmed.
Kline denied the influence of oriental calligraphy because it is a method of writing, and regarded
white as important (Cf. Katharine Kuh, The Artist’s Voice: Talks with Seventeen Artists,
Massachusetts, Da Capro Press, 2000, p. 144). Motherwell also said that he thought that thedrawing of “void” in the oriental sense was important (Cf. Robert Motherwell, Motherwell,interview with Jack Flam, November 5, 1982, New York: Rizzoli, 1991, p. 10).
Timothy J. Clark, Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism, New Haven andLondon: Yale University Press, 1999, p. 351.
Cf. Tetsuya Oshima, « Jackson Pollock no Cut Out: Sono Nendai Kakutei to Sakusha Doutei
womeguru Ichi Kousatsu », Geijutsu/Hihyo, Tosindo, 2003, pp. 70-117.
Jackson Pollock: a catalogue raisonné of paintings, drawings, and other works, vol. 4, 1978, p.
258.

* This paper is based on the Japanese version printed in Bigaku (Aesthetics) No. 244 (2014): 109-120,
published by the Japanese Society for Aesthetics.