Jackson Pollock 1912-1956

As you can see in the samples from Pollock and de Kooning the distinction between representationalism and abstract expressionism is an artificial one. The first Pollock painting titled Blue Poles is about midway between She Wolf (second painting) and the Autumn Rhythm.

Willem de Kooning spent three years 1950-52 working on Woman I which, like She Wolf, is semi-representational after winning the first place purchase award for the more abstract Excavation in 1950 at Art Institute of Chicago. De Kooning's dealer Sidney Janis was somewhat put out with him for wasting all this time on the female figure which he considered an outdated theme but de Kooning wasn't one to be driven by artistic fads or what the critics were saying about abstract art as the wave of the future.