Number 7, 1951

1951

Jackson Pollock

Artist, American, 1912 - 1956

This work is created entirely with dripped and splattered black paint against a bone-colored background in this abstract horizontal painting. The left half is a collection of mostly vertical lines above a nest-like patch of crossing lines near the bottom. Many of the vertical lines are spaced apart so only a few overlap, and the lines are marked with splotches that resemble ink blots. To our right, more densely spaced spatters and lightly curving lines combine to create an abstracted face and body of a person. The artist signed and dated the work in black paint in the lower right corner: “Jackson Pollock 51.”
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On View

NGA, East Building, EU-407-B, W

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    enamel on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of the Collectors Committee

  • Dimensions

    overall: 143.5 x 167.6 cm (56 1/2 x 66 in.)
    framed: 146.7 x 171.1 cm (57 3/4 x 67 3/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1983.77.1

  • Copyright

    © 1997 Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist [1912-1956]; purchased c. 1953 by Reginald R. Issacs, Cambridge, Massachusetts; purchased through (E.V. Thaw & Co., Inc., New York) by the NGA Collectors Committee; gift 1983 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1951

  • Jackson Pollock, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, 1951, illustrated but not identified in catalogue.

1952

  • Jackson Pollock, Studio Paul Faccetti, Paris, 1952, catalogue without checklist.

1966

  • Loan to display with permanent collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1966.

1997

  • Founders and Heirs of the New York School, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; The Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai; The Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki, 1997, no. 45, repro.

2002

  • Pollock's "Blue Poles, No. 11", National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2002-2003, no catalogue.

2015

  • Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots, Tate Liverpool; Dallas Museum of Art, 2015-2016, unnumbered catalogue, repro. (shown only in Dallas).

Bibliography

1989

  • Strick, Jeremy. Twentieth Century Painting and Sculpture: Selections for the Tenth Anniversary of the East Building. Washington, D.C., 1989: 72, repro. 73.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 264, repro.

1998

  • Spring, Justin. The Essential Jackson Pollock. New York, 1998: repro. opp. 92.

1999

  • Siegel, Jeanne. Painting After Pollock: Structures of Influence. Amsterdam, 1999: 195, repro. 196.

Inscriptions

lower right: Jackson Pollock 51

Wikidata ID

Q20194447

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