In the late 1940s, Jackson Pollock, now recognized as one of the most important Abstract Expressionist artists, began experimenting with a new method of painting that involved dripping, flinging and pouring paint onto a canvas laid flat on the ground. This process engaged his entire body, and the resulting images were a direct index of the energy he expended to create these works. One: Number 31 (1950), among the largest of the paintings he produced by this method, is a virtuoso showcase of his mastery of materials and technique. In this volume of the MoMA One on One series, a lively essay by former museum curator and professor Charles Stuckey offers an in-depth exploration of the painting, one of many groundbreaking works by Pollock in MoMA's collection.

The first comprehensive monograph on painter and poet Robert De Niro, Sr. (1922-1993), a major contributor to postwar American art, known for his unique, bold style of painterly representation. De Niro was a visionary artist in the early days of Abstract Expressionism and a celebrated member of the New York School of painters, along with Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock. Over the course of his fifty-year career, he painted portraits, still lifes, the female nude, and interiors with a signature gestural painting style and brilliant color, which bear the influence of Henri Matisse as well as his teacher, Hans Hofmann. During the height of Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art in the 1960s, De Niro remained faithful to his own vision in his paintings and poetry; today his powerful figural works are ripe for rediscovery. This lavishly illustrated book brings together De Niro s paintings, prints, and drawings as well as a never-before-published selection of his writings and poetry. Featuring essays by noted scholars and an illustrated biography including many unpublished photographs and ephemera, this seminal volume explores the depth and breadth of De Niro s oeuvre.