Jackson POLLOCK (1912-1956)
1946 Three Influences and Two Women
2013 SOLD 21 M$ including premium
The art of Jackson Pollock is at the confluence of three sources of inspiration.
He admires the Mexican muralists and mostly Orozco, and retains the idea that an image does not need to be composed in relation to its frame.
He appreciates with Siqueiros that non-conventional techniques of color distribution on the surface to be painted can generate new effects.
Treated for his alcoholism by a psychoanalyst close to Jung, he is convinced that the most important is the creative act, so that the artist is quite right to hide his original message when he completes the artwork.
In the war years, the team of Peggy Guggenheim discovers in Pollock an artist enough spontaneous and innovative to embody the power and action of the American dream. She sponsors him without being close to him.
Lee Krasner got the brilliant intuition that life in the big city is not conducive to the artistic stimulus of this violent and misanthropic young man. She married him and moved with him to a barn with sea sight in Long Island.
On May 14 in New York, Sotheby's sells a large canvas, 213 x 142 cm, painted in 1946 at the beginning of the Long Island studio. It is titled The Blue Unconscious and estimated $ 20M.
First, forget the title, which has never been important in the art of Pollock. This somehow unattractive painting is extraordinary for the analysis of his art.
Most of his other works of the first year in Long Island are nestings of colors interpreting as a continuous structure the boundless view of the lush nature from the window of the barn. Their almost abstract effect is close to what Pollock will achieve by dripping a few months later.
The Blue Unconscious is close to the style of Gorky and de Kooning, perhaps by accident because Pollock was not interested in the works and theories of abstract expressionists. A female nude larger than life occupies the right side of the image while the left side receives grimacing heads. The whole is voluntarily made poorly readable by patterns of colored lines.
It is as if one example had survived of those Pollock's fantasies which he will continue to draw throughout his career before feverishly and systematically hiding them by the dripping.
Pollock was one of the most fertile triggers of modern art and his early success is linked to the American dream. The brutal deaths of James Dean, Jackson Pollock and Marilyn Monroe and the horrors of the Vietnam war will end this utopia in which the real gravedigger in art will be Warhol.
POST SALE COMMENT
This work from a period of transition which was important for the artist and more generally for American art was sold $ 21M including premium.
Here is the link to the catalogue.
He admires the Mexican muralists and mostly Orozco, and retains the idea that an image does not need to be composed in relation to its frame.
He appreciates with Siqueiros that non-conventional techniques of color distribution on the surface to be painted can generate new effects.
Treated for his alcoholism by a psychoanalyst close to Jung, he is convinced that the most important is the creative act, so that the artist is quite right to hide his original message when he completes the artwork.
In the war years, the team of Peggy Guggenheim discovers in Pollock an artist enough spontaneous and innovative to embody the power and action of the American dream. She sponsors him without being close to him.
Lee Krasner got the brilliant intuition that life in the big city is not conducive to the artistic stimulus of this violent and misanthropic young man. She married him and moved with him to a barn with sea sight in Long Island.
On May 14 in New York, Sotheby's sells a large canvas, 213 x 142 cm, painted in 1946 at the beginning of the Long Island studio. It is titled The Blue Unconscious and estimated $ 20M.
First, forget the title, which has never been important in the art of Pollock. This somehow unattractive painting is extraordinary for the analysis of his art.
Most of his other works of the first year in Long Island are nestings of colors interpreting as a continuous structure the boundless view of the lush nature from the window of the barn. Their almost abstract effect is close to what Pollock will achieve by dripping a few months later.
The Blue Unconscious is close to the style of Gorky and de Kooning, perhaps by accident because Pollock was not interested in the works and theories of abstract expressionists. A female nude larger than life occupies the right side of the image while the left side receives grimacing heads. The whole is voluntarily made poorly readable by patterns of colored lines.
It is as if one example had survived of those Pollock's fantasies which he will continue to draw throughout his career before feverishly and systematically hiding them by the dripping.
Pollock was one of the most fertile triggers of modern art and his early success is linked to the American dream. The brutal deaths of James Dean, Jackson Pollock and Marilyn Monroe and the horrors of the Vietnam war will end this utopia in which the real gravedigger in art will be Warhol.
POST SALE COMMENT
This work from a period of transition which was important for the artist and more generally for American art was sold $ 21M including premium.
Here is the link to the catalogue.
1948 The Organic Abstraction of Jackson Pollock
2013 SOLD 58 M$ including premium
In 1946, Lee Krasner pushes Jackson Pollock to a secluded barn on Long Island. Thus freed from the bustle of the big city, Pollock has the luck to live his artistic Passion, in the strongest meaning of the word 'passion'.
He did not consider himself as an abstract artist. In the first months after his arrival in Long Island, he developed two series of paintings titled 'Sounds in the grass' and 'Accabonac Creek', reflecting his desire to commune with the earth for expressing its richness.
He then invented his own style so well known today but then so different from anything that existed before him. The surface to be painted is placed on the ground and not on an easel. He leaves his brushes to directly throw the liquid paint. There is no horizon and no framing even when the work is small, and there is also no longer a figuration.
The lines of pure colors of various widths form infinite and meticulous tangles. Sometimes, the start of the work is figurative before being hidden, but it is not the most important. The regularity of the final mesh is spectacular without being total, so that certain areas are breathing or vibrating such as an organic matter. Only Richter's rake will be able to generate similar effects.
On May 15 in New York, Christie's sells Number 19, 1948. This oil and enamel on paper mounted on canvas is small, 78 x 57 cm, but the fineness of the line is prodigious. Such a technical and artistic achievement deserves an estimate of $ 25M.
I invite you to watch the exciting video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
Despite its small size, Number 19-1948 is a masterpiece of Pollock by the extreme care of its realization. This painting was sold $ 58M including premium.
He did not consider himself as an abstract artist. In the first months after his arrival in Long Island, he developed two series of paintings titled 'Sounds in the grass' and 'Accabonac Creek', reflecting his desire to commune with the earth for expressing its richness.
He then invented his own style so well known today but then so different from anything that existed before him. The surface to be painted is placed on the ground and not on an easel. He leaves his brushes to directly throw the liquid paint. There is no horizon and no framing even when the work is small, and there is also no longer a figuration.
The lines of pure colors of various widths form infinite and meticulous tangles. Sometimes, the start of the work is figurative before being hidden, but it is not the most important. The regularity of the final mesh is spectacular without being total, so that certain areas are breathing or vibrating such as an organic matter. Only Richter's rake will be able to generate similar effects.
On May 15 in New York, Christie's sells Number 19, 1948. This oil and enamel on paper mounted on canvas is small, 78 x 57 cm, but the fineness of the line is prodigious. Such a technical and artistic achievement deserves an estimate of $ 25M.
I invite you to watch the exciting video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
Despite its small size, Number 19-1948 is a masterpiece of Pollock by the extreme care of its realization. This painting was sold $ 58M including premium.
1948 Demonstration of Dripping
2010 SOLD 8.7 M$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Life magazine asked the question in 1949: Jackson Pollock - is he the greatest living painter in the United States? An answer came in 2006 when a board painted in 1948, numbered No. 5, 244 x 122 cm, was sold $ 140 million in a private sale, with the probable participation of Sotheby's.
Let us return at Sotheby's but this time in an auction, the day after tomorrow, on May 12 in New York.
No. 12A is an important work, also made in 1948, and one of three which illustrated the article in Life. It is unfortunately small, 58 x 78 cm. Enameled dripping of various width in yellow, gray and black have been laid on a white paper prepared with a smooth and shiny coating. The image is shared by AuctionPublicity (as usual on the web, without warranty of color and with no shining effect !).
The estimate, $ 4 million, is a compromise. We probably prefer Pollock works on larger surface, on canvas or board, which better reflect that technical gesture for which he is recognized as one of the leading innovators in the history of art.
POST SALE COMMENT
This small painting on paper is important in art history. It was sold $ 8.7 million including premium.
Life magazine asked the question in 1949: Jackson Pollock - is he the greatest living painter in the United States? An answer came in 2006 when a board painted in 1948, numbered No. 5, 244 x 122 cm, was sold $ 140 million in a private sale, with the probable participation of Sotheby's.
Let us return at Sotheby's but this time in an auction, the day after tomorrow, on May 12 in New York.
No. 12A is an important work, also made in 1948, and one of three which illustrated the article in Life. It is unfortunately small, 58 x 78 cm. Enameled dripping of various width in yellow, gray and black have been laid on a white paper prepared with a smooth and shiny coating. The image is shared by AuctionPublicity (as usual on the web, without warranty of color and with no shining effect !).
The estimate, $ 4 million, is a compromise. We probably prefer Pollock works on larger surface, on canvas or board, which better reflect that technical gesture for which he is recognized as one of the leading innovators in the history of art.
POST SALE COMMENT
This small painting on paper is important in art history. It was sold $ 8.7 million including premium.
1949 Dances around the Image
2018 SOLD for $ 34M including premium
During an exhibition at the MoMA in 1941, Pollock attended a Navajo sand-picture show that reminded him of his childhood in Wyoming. Creation is a ritual where the original image disappears under the accumulation of layers.
This experience will give him the idea of placing his canvas or paper flat on the floor of his workshop for a better precision of his dissemination of colors. Executing his gestural dance around the work as it goes along, he realizes Malevich's old dream of a re-orientable image in all directions that also gives the illusion of spreading beyond its own limits.
While canceling the figurative, Malevich also wanted to highlight the material. Pollock manages a similar approach. After the very large paintings of early 1948 he tries several techniques on small sizes.
The works on paper prepared with a white primer are promising and the small formats make it more possible to obtain in a lesser time a full covering of the surface with the desirable entangled lines of high density. Painted with pours and drips of oil and enamel paints, Number 19, 1948, a 78 x 57 cm paper mounted on canvas, was sold for $ 58M including premium by Christie's on May 15, 2013.
The use of aluminum paint for the white lines brings an additional brilliance. In the same size as the Number 19, 1948 described above, Number 32, 1949 was mounted on masonite. In a nice freshness thanks to a parsimonious use in exhibitions, this painting on paper is estimated $ 30M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 16, lot 14. Please watch the short video and the full video shared by the auction house.
This experience will give him the idea of placing his canvas or paper flat on the floor of his workshop for a better precision of his dissemination of colors. Executing his gestural dance around the work as it goes along, he realizes Malevich's old dream of a re-orientable image in all directions that also gives the illusion of spreading beyond its own limits.
While canceling the figurative, Malevich also wanted to highlight the material. Pollock manages a similar approach. After the very large paintings of early 1948 he tries several techniques on small sizes.
The works on paper prepared with a white primer are promising and the small formats make it more possible to obtain in a lesser time a full covering of the surface with the desirable entangled lines of high density. Painted with pours and drips of oil and enamel paints, Number 19, 1948, a 78 x 57 cm paper mounted on canvas, was sold for $ 58M including premium by Christie's on May 15, 2013.
The use of aluminum paint for the white lines brings an additional brilliance. In the same size as the Number 19, 1948 described above, Number 32, 1949 was mounted on masonite. In a nice freshness thanks to a parsimonious use in exhibitions, this painting on paper is estimated $ 30M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 16, lot 14. Please watch the short video and the full video shared by the auction house.
1949 Modern Art on Paper
2013 SOLD for $ 32.6M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
1949 was the pinnacle in the life of Jackson Pollock. His unprecedented method of painting with dripping, which he invented two years earlier, is operational. His wife Lee Krasner and the gallery owner Betty Parsons manage his career, sparing him those social relationships in which he is so uncomfortable. From the end of 1948 until November 1950, he did not drink alcohol.
With these favorable circumstances, Jack can devote himself to his art, which he has always understood as the expression of his subconscious. The laudatory comments from some art critics don't surprise him : he tells Lee that there is no other example of creativity in their country except for the Bebop by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.
He has detractors, who consider that his creative gesture is random and therefore meaningless. Motivated by this opposition, he is preparing a series of paintings which will be exhibited together at the end of the year by Betty Parsons to demonstrate the diversity of his pictorial effects in a unique format.
He chooses oil and enamel on paper, which does not alter the colors of the pigments, adding on some works a phosphorescence effect with aluminum paint. The paper format, 78 x 57 cm, is not comparable to the gigantic canvases of the previous year, but it has an operational advantage : the jerky movement of the wrist is sufficient to perform a dripping of great precision without resorting to a gesticulatory dance all around the work.
This set of 16 works mounted on masonite is exhibited in November 1949 by Betty Parsons alongside unsold items from the previous show.
Number 32, 1949, is one of the 8 examples that used aluminum. This lot, which was narrated before its sale in this column, was sold for $ 34M including premium by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018.
The numbers 12, 16 and 17 appear as nets entangling the black and colored lines over an ocher background. This centered pattern which hardly reaches the edge of the image gives up the effect of infinite field, which was therefore not essential in Pollock's creativity, while maintaining the total absence of a third dimension.
De-accessed from MoMA, Number 12 was sold for $ 11.7M by Christie's on May 11, 2004, lot 17. Number 16 was sold for $ 32.6M by Christie's on November 12, 2013, lot 39. Number 17, 57 x 72 cm, was sold for $ 23M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2015, lot 9. These results include the premium.
With these favorable circumstances, Jack can devote himself to his art, which he has always understood as the expression of his subconscious. The laudatory comments from some art critics don't surprise him : he tells Lee that there is no other example of creativity in their country except for the Bebop by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.
He has detractors, who consider that his creative gesture is random and therefore meaningless. Motivated by this opposition, he is preparing a series of paintings which will be exhibited together at the end of the year by Betty Parsons to demonstrate the diversity of his pictorial effects in a unique format.
He chooses oil and enamel on paper, which does not alter the colors of the pigments, adding on some works a phosphorescence effect with aluminum paint. The paper format, 78 x 57 cm, is not comparable to the gigantic canvases of the previous year, but it has an operational advantage : the jerky movement of the wrist is sufficient to perform a dripping of great precision without resorting to a gesticulatory dance all around the work.
This set of 16 works mounted on masonite is exhibited in November 1949 by Betty Parsons alongside unsold items from the previous show.
Number 32, 1949, is one of the 8 examples that used aluminum. This lot, which was narrated before its sale in this column, was sold for $ 34M including premium by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018.
The numbers 12, 16 and 17 appear as nets entangling the black and colored lines over an ocher background. This centered pattern which hardly reaches the edge of the image gives up the effect of infinite field, which was therefore not essential in Pollock's creativity, while maintaining the total absence of a third dimension.
De-accessed from MoMA, Number 12 was sold for $ 11.7M by Christie's on May 11, 2004, lot 17. Number 16 was sold for $ 32.6M by Christie's on November 12, 2013, lot 39. Number 17, 57 x 72 cm, was sold for $ 23M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2015, lot 9. These results include the premium.
1950 Dancing with Red Strokes
2018 SOLD for $ 55M including premium
The non-figurative paintings by Jackson Pollock are neither mystical nor pantheistic. They express his deep personality as no artist had done before him.
The artistic training of this Wyoming boy had not been conventional. He admires the influence of the tribal arts on Picasso and the revolutionary message of the Mexican muralists, and especially he gets rid of the usual practices of the painters.
By neglecting the limits of his canvas or paper support, he offers infinity whatever the size of the artwork, as Mondrian had done. By putting his canvas or paper directly on the floor, he can dance around it like an Indian. In this gesture where the paint flows from the pot shaken by the hand, he creates networks of colors that he modifies at will, which would be impossible on a wall or an easel.
The surrealists wanted to express their dreams. Pollock does the opposite : he controls his subconscious. His colors are so entangled that no detail is preponderant. They do not constitute a cerebral image but the product of his three-dimensional dance. A little later Kazuo Shiraga will also involve his own body in his artistic creation.
Pollock is a perfectionist but he works quickly and his output is abundant. His best years begin in 1948 when he can devote himself entirely to his art with the effective support of his wife Lee Krasner in their Long Island barn studio isolated from the harmful temptations of the big city.
On November 13 in New York, Christie's sells a painting in oil, enamel and aluminum 93 x 65 cm, lot 17 B estimated $ 50M. Dated 1950 by the artist but not numbered, it has no exhibition history in his lifetime and is identified by the descriptive title Composition with Red Strokes.
The artistic training of this Wyoming boy had not been conventional. He admires the influence of the tribal arts on Picasso and the revolutionary message of the Mexican muralists, and especially he gets rid of the usual practices of the painters.
By neglecting the limits of his canvas or paper support, he offers infinity whatever the size of the artwork, as Mondrian had done. By putting his canvas or paper directly on the floor, he can dance around it like an Indian. In this gesture where the paint flows from the pot shaken by the hand, he creates networks of colors that he modifies at will, which would be impossible on a wall or an easel.
The surrealists wanted to express their dreams. Pollock does the opposite : he controls his subconscious. His colors are so entangled that no detail is preponderant. They do not constitute a cerebral image but the product of his three-dimensional dance. A little later Kazuo Shiraga will also involve his own body in his artistic creation.
Pollock is a perfectionist but he works quickly and his output is abundant. His best years begin in 1948 when he can devote himself entirely to his art with the effective support of his wife Lee Krasner in their Long Island barn studio isolated from the harmful temptations of the big city.
On November 13 in New York, Christie's sells a painting in oil, enamel and aluminum 93 x 65 cm, lot 17 B estimated $ 50M. Dated 1950 by the artist but not numbered, it has no exhibition history in his lifetime and is identified by the descriptive title Composition with Red Strokes.
1950 The Subconscious and the Organic
2015 SOLD for $ 18.3M including premium
The expressionist art of Jackson Pollock starts from the subconscious to achieve the organic. It is a representation of the soil created by countless constituents and changing with the seasons.
The surface to be painted is placed on the floor of the studio, allowing the artist to drip the paint. The flexibility of the wrist permits a progressive coverage of the entire area. Contrary to the drawing where rubbing stains the surface, this technique can be indefinitely repeated with additional layers.
In 1950, his third year of intensive practice of dripping, Pollock reached the thoroughness of a miniaturist. The fine lines of pure and brilliant colors are almost invisible, and from one painting to the other the overall effect is always different.
The elementary gesture is close to the convulsive subconscious of the surrealist drawing but the artwork is not completed until the overall result meets the desire of the artist.
He received from his brother fifteen masonite panels of the same size 56 x 56 cm. The dense fibers of the condensed wood interest him, perhaps because they offer a basic texture that exempts the artist to start with a trivial drawing from his fantasy that he will then have to hide.
Mondrian did not need a large size to express the infinite, same for Pollock for the sublime organic. These fifteen paintings are among the best of his art.
On May 12 in New York, Sotheby's sells Number 12, 1950, lot 31 estimated $ 15M. I invite you to watch the video shared by the auction house.
The surface to be painted is placed on the floor of the studio, allowing the artist to drip the paint. The flexibility of the wrist permits a progressive coverage of the entire area. Contrary to the drawing where rubbing stains the surface, this technique can be indefinitely repeated with additional layers.
In 1950, his third year of intensive practice of dripping, Pollock reached the thoroughness of a miniaturist. The fine lines of pure and brilliant colors are almost invisible, and from one painting to the other the overall effect is always different.
The elementary gesture is close to the convulsive subconscious of the surrealist drawing but the artwork is not completed until the overall result meets the desire of the artist.
He received from his brother fifteen masonite panels of the same size 56 x 56 cm. The dense fibers of the condensed wood interest him, perhaps because they offer a basic texture that exempts the artist to start with a trivial drawing from his fantasy that he will then have to hide.
Mondrian did not need a large size to express the infinite, same for Pollock for the sublime organic. These fifteen paintings are among the best of his art.
On May 12 in New York, Sotheby's sells Number 12, 1950, lot 31 estimated $ 15M. I invite you to watch the video shared by the auction house.
1950 Fifteen Small Masonite Boards
2018 SOLD for £ 9.3M including premium
In 1949 after an article in Life magazine Jackson Pollock becomes a subject of curiosity for Americans eager to promote new artistic trends. His method of dripping on huge canvases laid flat on the ground is unique. Physically and psychologically the artist becomes part of the art in progress.
From his remote studio in Long Island, Pollock does not care about his new reputation. Seconded by Lee Krasner who controls his sobriety, he has full confidence in his own creativity. His art is not limited to a gesticulation around large formats.
His brother Sanford "Sande" McCoy is a printer. He kept from a previous operation an attrition of fifteen masonite panels 56 x 56 cm printed on one side with a game of baseball. He gives them to "Jack" in early 1950.
The texture of the panel is more conducive than a canvas to the entanglement of bright colors of his enamel and aluminum paints. Pollock no longer needs a preparatory work. When he creates on the reverse of the baseball game the jewel like textures of his organic world, he is in direct contact with his work.
The result suits him so much that he renounces in this series to the idea of infinity supported by large formats : on the edges the raw masonite is preserved with great sharpness, probably obtained with a blanking mask.
Number 12, 1950 was sold for $ 18.3M including premium by Sotheby's on May 12, 2015. Number 21, 1950 is estimated £ 10M for sale by Christie's in London on March 6, lot 28.
From his remote studio in Long Island, Pollock does not care about his new reputation. Seconded by Lee Krasner who controls his sobriety, he has full confidence in his own creativity. His art is not limited to a gesticulation around large formats.
His brother Sanford "Sande" McCoy is a printer. He kept from a previous operation an attrition of fifteen masonite panels 56 x 56 cm printed on one side with a game of baseball. He gives them to "Jack" in early 1950.
The texture of the panel is more conducive than a canvas to the entanglement of bright colors of his enamel and aluminum paints. Pollock no longer needs a preparatory work. When he creates on the reverse of the baseball game the jewel like textures of his organic world, he is in direct contact with his work.
The result suits him so much that he renounces in this series to the idea of infinity supported by large formats : on the edges the raw masonite is preserved with great sharpness, probably obtained with a blanking mask.
Number 12, 1950 was sold for $ 18.3M including premium by Sotheby's on May 12, 2015. Number 21, 1950 is estimated £ 10M for sale by Christie's in London on March 6, lot 28.
1951 Brawl of Colors on Pollock's Canvas
2012 SOLD 40 M$ including premium
Entitled Number 4, 1951, the painting for sale on November 13 by Sotheby's in New York is a great demonstration of the most brilliant works by Jackson Pollock, with a variety of exciting colors that is not frequently the most visible feature for this artist .
Three techniques are brought together to create harmony within this small canvas, 77 x 64 cm, impregnated with aluminum paint.
Created by dripping, fine lines of different colors are seeking to exchange a message defaced by their complexity, in the tradition of the automatic writing of Dada. Five very shiny and pure colors, red, blue, yellow, green and ochre, compete to dominate that field without worrying about the lines. Black enamel spots are trying to maintain some balance in this fight.
Pollock has developed an entirely new technique of creation by which the progressing work guides the artist in a lengthy process which is achieved when the artist can not imagine a further improvement of harmony.
Directly by the disclosure of his act, indirectly by the obtained result, the work of Pollock had a considerable influence on the art of the second half of the twentieth century. The further step in the Abstraktes Bild by Richter will be to no longer need that first drawing which Pollock and Klein were hiding or blurring.
As we know, the frenzy of Pollock ruined his health. The first owner of Number 4, 1951, was the psychoanalyst who was trying to help him against alcoholism.
This painting is estimated $ 25M. Here is the link to the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
This Pollock painting was sold $ 40M including premium. While it is not the top price of this sale which rewarded Rothko at $ 75M, and considering its small size, it is one of the most important works of abstract expressionism ever presented at auction.
Three techniques are brought together to create harmony within this small canvas, 77 x 64 cm, impregnated with aluminum paint.
Created by dripping, fine lines of different colors are seeking to exchange a message defaced by their complexity, in the tradition of the automatic writing of Dada. Five very shiny and pure colors, red, blue, yellow, green and ochre, compete to dominate that field without worrying about the lines. Black enamel spots are trying to maintain some balance in this fight.
Pollock has developed an entirely new technique of creation by which the progressing work guides the artist in a lengthy process which is achieved when the artist can not imagine a further improvement of harmony.
Directly by the disclosure of his act, indirectly by the obtained result, the work of Pollock had a considerable influence on the art of the second half of the twentieth century. The further step in the Abstraktes Bild by Richter will be to no longer need that first drawing which Pollock and Klein were hiding or blurring.
As we know, the frenzy of Pollock ruined his health. The first owner of Number 4, 1951, was the psychoanalyst who was trying to help him against alcoholism.
This painting is estimated $ 25M. Here is the link to the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
This Pollock painting was sold $ 40M including premium. While it is not the top price of this sale which rewarded Rothko at $ 75M, and considering its small size, it is one of the most important works of abstract expressionism ever presented at auction.
1951 The Wrestling of Pollock with his Art
2012 SOLD 23 M$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Jackson Pollock was totally immersed in his art. The canvas stretched on the ground becomes his universe. Heendlessly covers it with the streams of his paints, matted and spread by mechanical gestures that ultimately escape his own conscience.
Like all great artists, he wants to express his view of the world. His work is figurative, but the layers go to make it unreadable. Curiously, Klein will have a similar approach with his blue monochromes a few years later. Only the authorcan preserve the memory of this vanishing figuration.
In 1948, Pollock stops giving titles to his works, now designated by numbers. One of his largest boards, Number 5,1948, 2.4 x 1.2 m, reached $ 140M in a private sale in 2006. It was then the highest price ever paid for a work of art.
After various experiments, the artist returned to his 1948 style at the fall of 1951. His now thicker materials,deposited with syringes, become flesh. Number 28, 1951, painted on a large canvas 77 x 137 cm, in black and graywith white, red and yellow lines, is a masterpiece of this period.
Number 28 is estimated $ 20M, for sale on May 8 by Christie's in New York. Here is the link to the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
The evening was so successful, with a total of $ 388M including premium, that we may be almost disappointed that the Pollock remained around its lower estimate. It was sold $ 23M including premium.
Jackson Pollock was totally immersed in his art. The canvas stretched on the ground becomes his universe. Heendlessly covers it with the streams of his paints, matted and spread by mechanical gestures that ultimately escape his own conscience.
Like all great artists, he wants to express his view of the world. His work is figurative, but the layers go to make it unreadable. Curiously, Klein will have a similar approach with his blue monochromes a few years later. Only the authorcan preserve the memory of this vanishing figuration.
In 1948, Pollock stops giving titles to his works, now designated by numbers. One of his largest boards, Number 5,1948, 2.4 x 1.2 m, reached $ 140M in a private sale in 2006. It was then the highest price ever paid for a work of art.
After various experiments, the artist returned to his 1948 style at the fall of 1951. His now thicker materials,deposited with syringes, become flesh. Number 28, 1951, painted on a large canvas 77 x 137 cm, in black and graywith white, red and yellow lines, is a masterpiece of this period.
Number 28 is estimated $ 20M, for sale on May 8 by Christie's in New York. Here is the link to the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
The evening was so successful, with a total of $ 388M including premium, that we may be almost disappointed that the Pollock remained around its lower estimate. It was sold $ 23M including premium.
