Two works by Jackson Pollock at Sothebys

Jackson Pollock: “Number 16”

1949

Image courtesy of Sotheby’s

Two works by Jackson Pollock at Sothebys ]]>

April 22, 2007 -The Art market is thrilled: Jackson Pollock comes into scene… again. After the spectacular sale of “Number 5” for a record-breaker $140 million, Sotheby’s will auction two other important -though not as developed as the “Number 5“- works by Pollock next May 15th 2007

The auction house quotes in a press note: “A number of important works by Jackson Pollock, one of the masters of twentieth century art, will also be featured in the sale. Number 16, 1949, formerly in the collection of the artist’s earliest dealer and supporter, Peggy Guggenheim, dates from the period when Pollock was at his most confident in the use of his signature ‘drip technique’ that would prove so influential for generations of artists to come (pictured here). With dramatic flourish, Pollock proved that if art was defined by the artist, then the individual’s subconscious and instincts directly influenced the technique, composition and content of the art. Beginning in the winter of 1946-47 when Pollock first placed his canvases on the floor of his Long Island barn, he pushed the boundaries of painting beyond his earlier Surrealist and Expressionist work which also explored the tensions between figuration and abstraction. Standing above the painting surface, Pollock worked from all four sides to drip, pool and fling pigment from sticks, brushes and other implements. Pollock’s dexterity and total physicality abounds in Number 16, 1949 as he orchestrates the fluidity, density, speed and rhythm of his medium into an “all-over composition’’ of cohesive expressiveness. Number 16, 1949 is also an exquisite example of Pollock’s mastery of color, less frequently noted than his mastery of line. The thin skeins of black and white interweave with bright red, blue, yellow, green and silver to literally build the structure of Pollock’s composition as precisely as Mondrian constructed geometric abstractions. The balance within this painting rests on the strong diagonals of blue and red which serve as a gravitational center for the oscillating rhythms of Number 16, 1949. It is estimated to sell for $18/25 million.

In Rhythmical Dance -the press note continues-, Pollock also explored new possibilities with the three-dimensional layering of his ‘drip technique’ through the use of collage (pictured here). In two pairs of paintings from 1948, Pollock cut out human forms from one heavily painted sheet of paper to mount them on a second. The black lithe figures of Rhythmic Dance are therefore a cut-out aperture implying receding depth within a built-up terrain of muscular texture. The ropes of yellow pigment are squeezed whole from the tube while the skeins of white and black bind the “all-over’’ composition with the misty green pools. For an artist believed to be all about surface, Pollock created a celebration of extraordinary spatial depth. It is estimated to bring $12/16 million.