Kurzfassung

In working towards his mature abstract poured paintings, Pollock not only learned from Masson's abstract linear automatism, but was challenged by Masson's mythological narratives: Mythology of Being 1942 and Anatomy of my Universe 1943. Pollock's response to these narratives of male descent into the female labyrinth in search of harmony is evident in his Male and Female 1942, and later in his exploration of these same themes using an increasingly abstract automatist line in prints made at Hayter's Atelier 17 in 1944-45. In addition to Masson's example, what Hayter taught Pollock about the ability of an engraved line to move in the "space of the imagination" anticipates the three-dimensionality of Pollock's future poured gestures.