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Jackson Pollock, Green Poles

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Pollock, Green Poles, canvas, 20th century

Seemingly chaotic paintings of Jackson Pollock have been considered easy to replicate, if not to forge. Green Poles, assumed as one of his last paintings in the mid 1950’s, surfaced for sale and is under scrutiny for authentication. It is a medium size painting, 109 cm by 86 cm.

Fig.1. Jackson Pollock, Number 7, 1952. Enamel and oil on canvas, 134.9 x 101.6 cm. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A number of paints used for this work are identical to what Pollock was known to use. However, a thinner layer of deep green used underneath viscous splashes of black is unidentified both for its source and from the artists’ other works. A smudged fingerprint in the same color appears on the …show more content…

4. Jackson Pollock, Blue poles [Number 11, 1952], 1952. Enamel and aluminium Paint with glass on canvas, 212.1 x 488.9 cm. Canbarra, National Gallery of Australia.

While the work does not satisfy an expert’s eyes, the techniques do correspond with the change of Pollock’s style in early 1950’s. Pollock’s particular usage and control of various tools established an idiosyncratic style of his. In fact, there is a computer program that identifies Pollock’s work to an accuracy level of 93%, which did render Green Poles authentic. Meanwhile, other scientific methods would not be a reliable indicator to authenticate a Pollock.
Moreover, the provenance of the work is undesignated, as the seller remains anonymous and declined to disclose the origin of the work. However, this piece may be the one that Pollock gifted his mistress Ruth Kligman on B. H. Friedman’s thirtieth birthday. Additionally, the title of the work is what left some scholars unsure of its authenticity.
For its apparent easiness to imitate, Pollock is not short of forgeries. Clearly, some academics are skeptical due to Green Poles’ unverified source of paints, uncommon composition, unidentified provenance, and unusual title. Therefore, despite a number of reliable evidences, the authenticity of this painting is inconclusive, likely to be a …show more content…

Stulik, ‘An Integrated Approach for the Study of Painting Techniques’ in Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 6-11.
Friedman, 1973: Stanley P. Friedman, ‘Loopholes In “Blue Poles”’, New York Magazine, 6, no. 44, p.48.
Herczyriski, et al., 2011: Andrzej Herczyriski, Claude Cernuschi and L. Mahadevan, ‘Painting with drops, jets, and sheets’, Physics Today, 64, 2011, pp. 31-36.
Hochfield: Sylvia Hochfield, ‘The Blue Print’, ARTnews, 2008. [24 Aug, 2015], http://www.artnews.com/2008/06/01/the-blue-print/.
Kaprow, 1958: Allan Kaprow, ‘The Legacy of Jackson Pollock’ in Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993, pp. 1-9.
Karmel, 1999: Pepe Karmel, ‘Jackson Pollock. Interview with William Wright’ in Jackson Pollock: Interviews, Articles, and Reviews, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1999, pp. 20-23.
Naifeh & Smith, 1989: Steven Naifeh & Gregory White Smith, ‘Escape Velocity’ in Jackson Pollock: An American Saga, New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1989, pp.774-793.
New York, 1969: Jackson Pollock: Black and White, exh. cat., New York, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York: Marlborough-Gerson Gallery,

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