On a recent trip to the Dallas Museum of Art, I saw two very unique exhibits: International Pop and Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots. International Pop, which ran through January 17th, shined a spotlight on the pop art movement which began in the 1950s in the UK and US. The movement spread to other countries in the 60s, including Japan, Germany, Brazil and Argentina, all of which were represented in the DMA show. Pop artists, including Andy Warhol (who had a number of pieces in the exhibit, including 16 Jackies) took familiar “low” art images, including advertising, comics, war propaganda, etc, and attempted to elevate these symbols of pop culture to a “high” art level. The pieces in the exhibit were generally organized by country of origin or by theme. For example, Warhol’s 16 Jackies and Jann Haworth’s Maid sculpture were placed in the Love & Despair section, which contained works that examined sex, desire, and the representation of women in 50s and 60s pop culture.

The Distribution & Domesticity segment was devoted to works representing the abundance of food, including junk food like French fries and Coca-Cola, and other products found in American supermarkets and homes. Most of these pieces were by European artists, including Iceland’s Erro, whose Foodscape summed up this portion of the exhibition quite nicely.

A woman gets extremely close to Foodscape by Erro. Photo by Laura Buckman/Star-Telegram.

In the section titled Pop & Politics, guests were greeted by the sight of Sergio Lombardo’s John Fitzgerald Kennedy, which depicts a silhouette of the thirty-fifth president pointing outwards, as if he is making a personal appeal to the viewer. The rest of this section seemed to be devoted to the Vietnam War, the Olympics, and forces that shaped Japan in the post-World War II era, as well as a unique portrait of Mao Zedong made up of smaller depictions of the Chinese communist leader.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy by Sergio Lombardo. Photo by Laura Buckman/Star-Telegram.

The Blind Spots exhibit, which runs until March 20, seems to be a particular source of pride for the DMA and curator Gavin Delahunty, which is understandable for two reasons. First, it is one of the largest Jackson Pollock exhibitions ever, with seventy pieces produced by the artist between 1950-1953, including thirty-one paintings plus forty works in other media (drawings, prints, and sculpture). Second, Dallas will be the only US city to host it. International Pop was full of color and chaos, but the space here is more subdued with white and grey walls and grey carpet. The design is meant to be reminiscent of the New York art galleries of the 50s, places Pollock's work would have been displayed, and compliments the black enamel on canvas paintings.

The paintings themselves were actually considered a departure from the style Pollock had become known for in earlier years, but they are still full of energy and a sense of the artist's emotional state at this point of his career. His technique for these pieces was simple in concept: Pollock would set an unprimed canvas on the floor and drip paint on it with a brush or other tool and let the paint pool together into a variety of shapes or impressions of forms. In many of them, you'll see what look like human hands and faces that resemble something Picasso would have painted. One piece that especially stood out to me was titled Portrait and a Dream (seen below). On the left is a mass of black lines in keeping with the rest of the exhibit, but on the right, you can see a patchwork face with splotches of orange, yellow, pink, and gray filling in the voids. It may seem obvious which is the portrait and which is the dream, but given that Pollock was struggling with alcoholism at the time he produced this work, the lines could be blurred. It could that be chaotic squiggles were his reality and the face a semblance of normalcy he dreamed of having.

A woman views Portrait and a Dream at London's Tate Modern art museum. Paul Ellis/Getty Images

While the time for International Pop may have passed, an incredible opportunity for modern art exposure awaits in Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots. My description of the exhibit hardly does it justice. So if you're a Dallasite, or happen to be in the area before March 20th, take a day to get coursed in some culture.