Jackson Pollock No. 5, 1948: The epitome of American Abstract Expressionism

Today Artalistic takes you on a journey through American Abstract Expressionism with the painting No. 5 by the famous artist Jackson Pollock, a leading figure in action painting and undisputed master of dripping and all-over painting.

A major figure in American Abstract Expressionism

Jackson Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming in 1912 and became a major artist because of his contributions to the American Abstract Expressionism movement. He is known for developing a technique referred to as action painting.

During his formative years he used creative means to express his emotions and reduce anxiety. Accompanied by his brother, he moved to New York in 1930 and enrolled in the Art Students League to study with Thomas Hart Benton. He also took sculpture classes and was paid to embellish public buildings.

Native American influences & Abstract Expressionism  

An unstable apprentice known for his unruly temper fuelled by alcohol addiction, he soon strayed from the conventional and delved into his own unique forms of artistic expression. Having grown up in Arizona, Pollock developed a career altering passion for Native American art and culture. In the early 1940s, he exhibited his first pieces in galleries in Manhattan. In 1945, he married fellow painter Lee Krasner.

From 1947 onwards, Jackson Pollock became interested in abstract techniques and became one of the leaders of the emerging American Abstract Expressionist movement. He created painting No.5 in 1948 and it is considered to be the most famous of his 700 works. His pieces created between 1947 and 1951 are known as his drip period paintings, which he created by laying fiberboard on the floor and splashing, smearing, splattering, dripping, flinging and pouring paints onto the surface to create an image.

Pollock passed away on August 11, 1956 in a car accident, leaving behind a well recognized, monumental body of work.

Jackson Pollock No. 5, 1948: a masterpiece 

Aesthetic approach

Jackson Pollock’s painting entitled No. 5 was created in 1948 at the beginning of his drip period.

Pollock used a large 8 ft. x 4 ft. (2.44 × 1.22 m) fiberboard panel as a canvas. He varnished it a light brown color. Pollock used black, white, gray, red and yellow oil overlapping in layers that interweave and cover the entire canvas. The movement in the piece is constant, when the viewer stares up at this immense piece and picks a string of color to follow, they are lost in Pollock’s emotions, constantly flowing through the lines of this enigmatic piece.

The colors were poured and filled with dynamic movement akin to the spontaneous and playful surrealist technique of automatic writing yet the gestures are, at the same time, controlled to form a bird-nest-like depiction of chaos. Pollock’s use of fluid paints helped define abstract expressionism.

Jackson Pollock No. 5: the most expensive painting in the world

Jackson Pollock’s No. 5 is one of the most famous pieces of American Abstract Expressionism. It was originally owned by Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr. and was on display at the MoMa in New York City. David Geffen, founder of Geffen records and co-founder of Dreamworks, owned it for a while and sold it in 2006 to David Martinez, an executive of Fintech Advisory Ltd.

Who owns Jackson Pollock’s No. 5 today?

Currently it is unclear who owns Jackson Pollock’s No. 5, as several experts, including Shearman & Sterling and expert Josh Baer, claim that Martinez no longer owns the piece.

One thing is certain; the private sale of No. 5 in 2006 set a new record at $140 million USD. It was led by Sotheby's Commissioner Tobias Meyer and surpassed the previous record held by Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I ($135 million).

The pinnacle of avant-garde painters

The main characteristics of American Abstract Expressionism

Abstract Expressionism is an artistic movement that developed in the United States shortly after the Second World War. The New York school is a group of American artists (painters, poets, musicians, sculptors, photographers and dancers), which represented the New York abstract expressionists of the 1950s.

As in Jackson Pollock's painting No. 5, American Abstract Expressionism is expressed in visual art through the use of the drip painting technique. Pollock was nicknamed “Jack The Dripper,” as he was as renowned and influential in this movement as Jack the Ripper was in the streets of London!

American Abstract Expressionism in painting: dripping and pouring

Drip painting is characterized by an energetic, even exuberant style. Picabia, Miró, Masson and Paalen had used it before Pollock but his name is still heavily associated with this technique.

Drip painting consists of dripping or pouring paint onto a canvas that is placed on the ground. The key to this technique is the artist’s ability to create the impression of homogeneity despite the use of several colors.

The term pouring is often used to define Jackson Pollock's work, which also uses gentle gestures to impregnate the canvas with interlacing paint, which resulted in dynamic effects. Pollock moved almost like a dancer while applying the pigments. He preferred the pouring technique because it was more active than drip painting.  

All-over painting

Jackson Pollock's work from 1947-1950 - including the famous No. 5 – which is also classified as all-over paintings. All-over painting lacks a dominant point of interest and has no definable top or bottom. The canvas must be treated as a uniform surface.

The term all-over appeared in the 1950s and appeared around the same time as action painting, which illustrated the importance of body language in abstract expressionism. Pollock’s pieces ingeniously employed both techniques, where his homogeneous all-over treatment of the canvas was used to reinforce his expressive action painting gestures such as flung paint, which seem to spring from the boarders of the painting.