Lot Essay
Jackson Pollock wrote to his friends Alfonso Ossorio and Ted Dragon on June 7, 1951, "I've had a period of drawing on canvas on black--with some of my early images coming thru--think the non-objectivists will find them disturbing--and the kids who think it simple to splash a Pollock out." (Pollock quoted in B.H. Friedman, Jackson Pollock: Energy Made Visible, New York 1972, p. 174)
The previous June, Pollock had been interviewed for the Sag Harbor radio station and was asked if he had any comments about his painting methods. He replied "My opinion is that new needs need new techniques. And the modern artists have found new ways and new means of making their statements. It seems to me that the modern painter cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any other past culture. Each new age finds its own techniques." ("An Interview with Jackson Pollock," reprinted in F.V. O'Connor, Jackson Pollock, The Museum of Modern Art, New York 1967, p. 79)
We know a great deal about the manner in which Pollock made his black and white paintings since Lee Krasner Pollock explained his technique in detail in an interview with B.H. Friedman. He painted on unstretched white cotton duck canvas rolled out on his studio floor, "maybe twenty feet, so the weight of the canvas would hold it down...Then typically he'd size it with a coat ot two of 'Rivit' glue to preserve the canvas and to give it a harder surface. Or sometimes, with the black-and-white paintings, he would size them after they were completed, to seal them...The paint Jackson used...was commercial too--mostly black industrial enamel...Then, using sticks, and hardened or worn-out brushes (which were in effect like sticks), and basting syringes, he'd begin. His control was amazing. Using a stick was difficult enough, but the basting syringe was like a giant fountain pen. With it he had to control the flow of ink as well as his gesture." ("An Interview with Lee Krasner Pollock by B.H. Friedman," Jackson Pollock: Black and White, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York 1969, p. 10)
While the general public was slow to appreciate Pollock's remarkable achievments and revolutionary style, by the time he first exhibited his black and white paintings in 1951, his drip paintings from 1947-1950 had been highly lauded by knowledgable critics and artists. Even they, however, were startled by the recent work, especially by the figuration that emerged in many of the black and white paintings. Their responses were as strong and confused as those that would later greet Picasso's last paintings. In the case of both masters, however, history has proven that great artists are often ahead of even their most informed audiences and the powerful lyricism of Pollock's black and white paintings is now self-evident.
Number 26, 1951 is unusual in the group of black and white paintings in that its imagery remains totally abstract. "The present painting...does not translate the all-over linearism of 1947-50 into one colour. On the contrary, the paint is poured in discontinuous and broad areas, with the result that the soft blots and trails seem to expand their directions in suspense. William Rubin has pointed out that Pollock's main influence has been through such paintings as 26 in which he had become a painter of the hovering colour spot rather than the line." (catalogue for the exhibition Jackson Pollock: Paintings, Drawings and Watercolours from the Collection of Lee Krasner Pollock, Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London, n.p.)
The previous June, Pollock had been interviewed for the Sag Harbor radio station and was asked if he had any comments about his painting methods. He replied "My opinion is that new needs need new techniques. And the modern artists have found new ways and new means of making their statements. It seems to me that the modern painter cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any other past culture. Each new age finds its own techniques." ("An Interview with Jackson Pollock," reprinted in F.V. O'Connor, Jackson Pollock, The Museum of Modern Art, New York 1967, p. 79)
We know a great deal about the manner in which Pollock made his black and white paintings since Lee Krasner Pollock explained his technique in detail in an interview with B.H. Friedman. He painted on unstretched white cotton duck canvas rolled out on his studio floor, "maybe twenty feet, so the weight of the canvas would hold it down...Then typically he'd size it with a coat ot two of 'Rivit' glue to preserve the canvas and to give it a harder surface. Or sometimes, with the black-and-white paintings, he would size them after they were completed, to seal them...The paint Jackson used...was commercial too--mostly black industrial enamel...Then, using sticks, and hardened or worn-out brushes (which were in effect like sticks), and basting syringes, he'd begin. His control was amazing. Using a stick was difficult enough, but the basting syringe was like a giant fountain pen. With it he had to control the flow of ink as well as his gesture." ("An Interview with Lee Krasner Pollock by B.H. Friedman," Jackson Pollock: Black and White, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York 1969, p. 10)
While the general public was slow to appreciate Pollock's remarkable achievments and revolutionary style, by the time he first exhibited his black and white paintings in 1951, his drip paintings from 1947-1950 had been highly lauded by knowledgable critics and artists. Even they, however, were startled by the recent work, especially by the figuration that emerged in many of the black and white paintings. Their responses were as strong and confused as those that would later greet Picasso's last paintings. In the case of both masters, however, history has proven that great artists are often ahead of even their most informed audiences and the powerful lyricism of Pollock's black and white paintings is now self-evident.
Number 26, 1951 is unusual in the group of black and white paintings in that its imagery remains totally abstract. "The present painting...does not translate the all-over linearism of 1947-50 into one colour. On the contrary, the paint is poured in discontinuous and broad areas, with the result that the soft blots and trails seem to expand their directions in suspense. William Rubin has pointed out that Pollock's main influence has been through such paintings as 26 in which he had become a painter of the hovering colour spot rather than the line." (catalogue for the exhibition Jackson Pollock: Paintings, Drawings and Watercolours from the Collection of Lee Krasner Pollock, Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London, n.p.)