Sunday, December 2, 2007

JACKSON POLLOCK : No. 5, 1948

This painting by Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), American Abstract Expressionist painter, was done on an 8' x 4' sheet of fiberboard, with thick amounts of brown and yellow paint drizzled on top of it, forming a nest-like appearance.

Born in Wyoming, Pollock grew up in Arizona and Chico, California, studying at Los Angeles' Manual Arts High School. In 1930, following his brother Charles, he moved to New York City, where they both studied under Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League of New York. Pollock was introduced to the use of liquid paint in 1936, at an experimental workshop operated in New York City by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros.

Pollock's most famous paintings were during the "drip period" between 1947 and 1950. He rocketed to popular status following an August 8, 1949 four-page spread in Life Magazine that asked, "Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?" At the peak of his fame, Pollock abruptly abandoned the drip style.

He died in a car accident on August 11, 1956 killing with him one of his passengers Edith Metzger. His wife , the Abstract painter, Lee Krasner survived him until 1984.

This painting was originally owned by publisher Samuel Irving Newhouse and displayed at the Museum of Modern Art before being sold to records producer David Geffen and then allegedly to Mexican financier David Martinez Gunzman in 2006. Martinez denied to have any right on the picture that was sold off by Sotheby's New York auctioneer Tobias Meyer for $ 140 million to a buyer who to this day decided to remain anonymous.

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