Artwork App

Abstract painting with dominant red, yellow, and blue tones. Densely commingled forms, many outlined in black or brown strokes, fill the canvas.

Unframed: 149.8 × 208.3 cm (59 × 82 1/16 in.); 149.9 × 208.3 cm (59 × 82 in.)

The Key

The Key belongs to Jackson Pollock’s Accabonac Creek series, named for a stream near the East Hampton property that he and his wife, the painter Lee Krasner, purchased in late 1945. Marking a crucial moment in his evolution as an artist, this quasi-Surrealist painting was created on the floor of an upstairs bedroom and worked on directly from all sides. Although there is a general suggestion of landscape, here the process of painting became primary, expressing the power of spontaneous action and chance effects. The resulting abstraction, with its expressive, gestural appearance, prefigured the allover compositions of Pollock’s celebrated drip paintings, which debuted the following year.

Credit Line

Through prior gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Morris

Colors

Exhibition History

New York, Art of This Century, “Jackson Pollock,” January 14–February 1, 1947, cat. 12. Art Institute of Chicago, “Abstract and Surrealist American Art: Fifty–Eighth Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture,” November 6, 1947–January 11, 1948, cat. by Frederick A. Sweet and Katharine Kuh, cat. 182 (ill.). Vermont, Bennington College, “A Retrospective Show of the Paintings of Jackson Pollock,” November 17–30, 1952; traveled to Williamstown, Mass., Lawrence Art Museum, Williams College, December 1–22, 1952, exh. pamphlet, cat. 3. New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, “15 Years of Jackson Pollock,” November 28–December 31, 1955, cat. 7 (ill.). São Paulo, Museu de Arte Moderna, “Pollock,” “IV Bienal,” September 22–December 31, 1957, n.pag., cat. 9. Rome, Museo Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, “Jackson Pollock: 1912–1956,” March 1–30, 1958, organized by the International Council at the Museum of Modern Art, cat. 9; traveled to Kunsthalle Basel, April 19–May 26, 1958, cat. 9, Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, June 6–July 7, 1958, cat. 9, Hamburg Kunstverein, July 19–August 17, cat. 9, Berlin, Hochschule für Bildende Künste, September 3–October 1, 1958, cat. 8, London, Whitechapel Gallery, November 5–December 14, 1958, p. 11, cat. 8, and Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne, January 16–February 15, 1959, cat. 8. Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf Kunsthalle, “Jackson Pollock,” September 5–October 8, 1961, cat. 76 (ill.). Kunsthaus Zürich, “Jackson Pollock,” October 24–November 29, 1961, cat. 76. New York, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, “Jackson Pollock,” January 14–February 15, 1964, cat. 79 (color ill.). Los Angeles County Museum of Art, “New York School, The First Generation: Paintings of the 1940s and 1950s,” July 16–August 1, 1965, curated by Maurice Tuchman, cat. 78 (ill.); rev. ed. (1971), fig. 84 (ill.). New York, Museum of Modern Art, “Jackson Pollock,” November 1, 1988–February 2, 1999, organized by Kirk Varnedoe with Pepe Karmel; traveled to London, Tate Gallery, March 11–June 6, 1999, pp. 47, 49, 321, 323 (photo), 327–328 (photo), pl. 109 (color ill.). Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris, Jackson Pollock: The Early Years, Oct. 15, 2024-Jan. 19, 2025, cat. 117.