Jackson Pollock, “The She-Wolf”, 1943, Museum of Modern Art, New York City
In the early 1940s, Jackson Pollock, like many of his peers, explored primeval or mythological themes in his work. The wolf in the 1943 painting “The She-Wolf” may allude to the animal in the myth of Rome’s birth that suckled the twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus.
However, “She-Wolf”came into existence because I had to paint it,” Pollock said in 1944. In an attitude typical of his generation, Jackson Pollock added, “Any attempt on my part to say something about it, to attempt explanation of the inexplicable, could only destroy it.”
“The She-Wolf” was featured in Pollock’s first solo exhibition, at the Art of This Century gallery in New York in 1943. The Museum of Modern Art acquired the painting the following year, making it the first work by Jackson Pollock to enter a museum collection.