Number 5, 1950 (1950)

Pollock, Jackson (1912-1956)

Number 5, 1950
1950
Oil on canvas, 136.5 x 99.1 cm
Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland

Notoriously nicknamed “Jack the Dripper” by Time magazine, Pollock pioneered the technique of flinging pigment from store-bought cans of paint onto canvas placed flat on the floor. Filled with intricate webs of lines and intermingled spatters, paintings such as Number 5, 1950 are unusually direct records of the artist’s moving body and hand gestures. (CMA)