Jackson Pollock's pouring work goes on show in a new exhibition at Tate Liverpool

As one of the most instantly recognisable modern artists and a GCSE art staple, it’s tempting to think there’s little we haven’t seen of Jackson Pollock’s work. A new exhibition at Tate Liverpool, however, proves us wrong. The exhibition, entitled Blind Spots, is the first in more than 30 years to show his late black pouring works. Some we’ll know, many we won’t, but all prove – if proof were needed – what an important, inspirational figure Pollock was. He managed to bring tricky concepts of Abstract Expressionism into the minds of a far wider audience than the art world inner circle, and his works are surely some of the most oft-seen, yet never tiresome artworks of the last century.

The Liverpool show presents the black pouring works, dating between 1951 and 1953, as a radical departure in Pollock’s practice, setting them against the counterpoint of his earlier drip pairings such as Summertime: Number 9A from 1948, and Tiger and Number 3 from 1949. “The exhibition offers the opportunity to appreciate Pollock’s broader ambitions as an artist and makes these fascinating later paintings readable as ‘blind spots’ in an otherwise intensely debated career,” says the Tate. “After nearly four years of colourful, decorative, non-figurative paintings, Pollock felt compelled to return to the origins of his art. He needed to reinvigorate his practice during a personally difficult period in his life and the representational style of his black pourings, including the emergence of human figures and faces, signalled a major change of direction in Pollock’s style.”

Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots is at Tate Liverpool from 30 June until 18 October.