Lots of people think they, or their offspring, can spatter paint on a canvas and create art comparable to Jackson Pollock s.

Amy Gilman knows better.

Pollock really believed it wasn t random; that he was controlling the paint once it left his body, she says. He was extremely sensitive to the moment when his painting lost balance.

Gilman, who will be 36 Tuesday, is the new associate curator of modern and contemporary art at the Toledo Museum of Art. In May, she rounded out the museum s six-person curatorial staff by filling the position vacated two years ago when Robert Phillips retired after 31 years. He was the museum s first curator of modern art.

I wanted to be at a place where I wasn t starting from scratch but where there was potential for growth, says Gilman.

Pollock s nine-foot-long Number 7, 1950 is a loan to the museum through May, 2006, from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Is art supposed to be something that is simply a window on the world? Or can it also represent an experience? Gilman asks. The marks on the canvas represent not only his experience of making the painting, but also your experience of experiencing the painting.

The museum requested a Pollock in exchange for Still Life by Camille Pissarro, lent to MOMA for a traveling exhibit.

In the mid-20th century, Pollock shook up the art world by shunning the easel and spreading large canvases on the floor of his Long Island barn. He interacted with them from all sides, tossing, dripping, and flinging paint with deliberation, and moving it on the canvas with all types of tools to achieve kinetic and calligraphic effects.

Not only can you see his gestures [on the canvas], you start to realize he s doing this dance with the canvas, she says, suggesting a tango.

A native of Galveston, Texas, Gilman completed a doctoral degree in May at Case Western Reserve University in art history with a focus on modern and contemporary art. Her dissertation examined the intersection of technology and art in a 1968 artists book known as Xerox Book, by Seth Siegelaub and Jack Wendler. The 370-page volume includes contributions by seven artists, each of whom created 25 pages using a photocopy machine.

The period described as modern art began in the late 19th century and continued until about World War II, she says. Art generated from about mid-century on is generally considered contemporary. Such periods are defined by shifts in the way people see their lives and perceive the world, Gilman says, as well as different ways of making art.

The museum devotes eight galleries to modern and contemporary art, and owns thousands of items in this category.

I m beginning to learn the collection, says Gilman.

Curators and associate curators are responsible for an area of the collection. They recommend acquisitions, decide which works to put on view, propose temporary exhibitions, and collaborate with other institutions.

Contact Tahree Lane at: tlane@theblade.com or 419-724-6075.

First Published July 17, 2005, 2:44 p.m.