Aerodynamics

Charles Pollock, Aerodynamics, 1947, ink and gouache on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Allmendinger, 1978.39.5, © 1947 Charles Pollock Archives
Charles Pollock, Aerodynamics, 1947, ink and gouache on paper, sheet: 20 7814 38 in. (53.036.5 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Allmendinger, 1978.39.5, © 1947 Charles Pollock Archives

Artwork Details

Title
Aerodynamics
Date
1947
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sheet: 20 7814 38 in. (53.036.5 cm)
Copyright
© 1947 Charles Pollock Archives
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Allmendinger
Mediums
Mediums Description
ink and gouache on paper
Classifications
Subjects
  • Abstract
Object Number
1978.39.5

Artwork Description

Charles Pollock was the oldest and Jackson Pollock the youngest of the five sons of Stella May and Leroy Pollock. Born ten years earlier, Charles was measured, reflective, and patient, while Jackson was impulsive and mercurial. Charles was the first of the two to move to New York from the West and helped convince Jackson to continue his art studies in 1930. When Charles left New York in 1935, moving first to Washington, DC, and then to Michigan, the two brothers did not remain close. Charles drew Aerodynamics the same year that Jackson was embarking on the series of “drip” paintings that would catapult him to fame in the New York art world and abroad. The geometric shapes floating in the muted, monochromatic field of this drawing were typical of Charles’s more restrained and cerebral approach to abstraction.

Abstract Drawings, 2012

Works by this artist (81 items)

East Baltimore Documentary Survey Project
Dateca. 1975
gelatin silver print
Not on view
Linda Rich, Houses were built in close proximity to packing houses and canneries at the turn of the century, 1977-1980, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Endowment for the Arts, 1983.63.1098, © 1975, George Jadowski
Houses were built in close proximity to packing houses and…
Date1977-1980
gelatin silver print
Not on view
Linda Rich, McElderry Park, 1979, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Endowment for the Arts, 1983.63.1161, © 1975, George Jadowski
McElderry Park
Date1979
gelatin silver print
Not on view
Linda Rich, Neighborhood boys by the Bankard-Gunther Mansion, Butchers Hill. The mansion, built in 1864, was originally the home of a well-to-do butcher who amassed his fortune during the Civil War by selling his beef and pork products to the Union Army, 1977-1980, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Endowment for the Arts, 1983.63.1154, © 1975, George Jadowski
Neighborhood boys by the Bankard-Gunther Mansion, Butchers…
Date1977-1980
gelatin silver print
Not on view

More Artworks from the Collection

John Atherton, Minnesota, from the United States Series, 1946-1949, gouache and ink on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America, 1984.124.6
Minnesota, from the United States Series
Date1946-1949
gouache and ink on paperboard
Not on view
George Segal, The Restaurant, 1975, brush and ink, pen and ink, oil wash, gouache, charcoal and collage: photograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the General Services Administration, Art-in-Architecture Program, 1977.47.56
The Restaurant
Date1975
brush and ink, pen and ink, oil wash, gouache, charcoal and collage: photograph on paper
Not on view
Hans Erni, "The reason, in respect of which we are rational beings, is common: if this is so, common also is the reason which commands us what to do, and what not to do; if this is so, there is a common law also; if this is so, we are fellow-citizens; if this is so, we are members of some political community; if this is so, the world is in a manner a state...My nature is rational and social; and my city and country, so far as I am Antonius, is Rome; but so far as I am a man, it is the world."--Marcus Aurelius Antonius, 121-180. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man., 1950, gouache, scratchwork and india ink on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America, 1984.124.88
The reason, in respect of which we are rational beings, is…
Date1950
gouache, scratchwork and india ink on paper
Not on view
William H. Johnson, Jitterbugs (I), ca. 1940-1941, pen and ink, gouache, and pencil on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.135
Jitterbugs (I)
Dateca. 1940-1941
pen and ink, gouache, and pencil on paper
Not on view