Angels, Demons, and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet

By The Phillips Collection

Arts Education Educational Technology Visual Arts

What's Angels, Demons, and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet about?

This exhibition reveals a rare cross-cultural artistic dialogue among three prominent artists—American painter Jackson Pollock, American artist and patron of European and American postwar art, Alfonso Ossorio, and French painter Jean Dubuffet.

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Angels, Demons, and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet episodes:

02.09.2013
Corps de dame–Château d'Etoupe (Body of a Lady–“Stuffed Castle”), 1950 by Jean Dubuffet
Stop 1 Ossorio's Full Mother and Dubuffet’s Corps de Dame reflect the artists’ belief that, according to Dubuffet, “Painting is a more immediate and direct vehicle than verbal language, much closer to the cry.”
02.09.2013
Perpetual Sacrifice, 1949 by Alfonso Ossorio
Stop 2 In Perpetual Sacrifice, an extraordinary array of individual elements and distinct layers is combined into a harmonious yet disconcerting unison.
02.09.2013
Collage and Oil, c. 1951 by Jackson Pollock
Stop 3 Pollock’s Collage and Oil and Number 2, 1951 contain torn, wrinkled fragments of Japanese paper soaked in glue that had been splattered with orange gouache and black paint or ink.
02.09.2013
Red Family, 1951 by Alfonso Ossorio
Stop 4 Ossorio returns over and over to the motifs of mother and child, family, angel, crucifix—the traditional iconography of Catholicism, the faith of his childhood.
02.09.2013
Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), 1950 by Jackson Pollock
Stop 5 Bought by Alfonso Ossorio in 1951, Lavender Mist exemplifies Pollock’s interest in experimentation and in expanding the language of traditional easel painting.
02.09.2013
Reforming Figure, 1952 by Alfonso Ossorio
Stop 6 In Reforming Figure there is tremendous detail and layering; Ossorio creates an incredible sense of veils, forms, and color.
02.09.2013
The Child Returns, 1950 by Alfonso Ossorio
Stop 7 The Child Return is one in a series of highly personal paintings made by Ossorfio during his visit to the Philippines, filled with references to his Catholic faith and themes of birth, childhood, family life, and death.

What's Angels, Demons, and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Angels, Demons, and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet episodes:

Corps de dame–Château d'Etoupe (Body of a Lady–“Stuffed Castle”), 1950 by Jean Dubuffet

Perpetual Sacrifice, 1949 by Alfonso Ossorio

Collage and Oil, c. 1951 by Jackson Pollock

Red Family, 1951 by Alfonso Ossorio

Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), 1950 by Jackson Pollock

Reforming Figure, 1952 by Alfonso Ossorio

The Child Returns, 1950 by Alfonso Ossorio