Number 28 by Jackson Pollock

Soon after completing Number 28 Pollock would embark upon a series of works using only black paint. These would be his last works, the raw canvas interacting with the paint to create stark images.

Number 28 is not a dark painting, but neither is it as vibrant in colour as earlier works and gives indication of the direction in which Pollock was moving.

By 1951, when he executed Number 28, the American artist Jackson Pollock was at the height of his fame. Founder of the movement of Abstract Expressionism, Pollock gained fame from the mid nineteen forties for what wer eto be known as his drip or action paintaings where paint was dripped or poured onto the canvas or paper rather than applied by traditional methods.

These paintings were often characterised by the use of a bold and strong palette. In later years Pollock would take to using only black enamel paint for his final series of works known as the ‘Black Pour’ pieces. Number 28 could be considered as something of a work that bridges those two styles.

The bold palette has been abandoned in favour of an almost neutral tone of grey tinged with yellow, red and black, but it is white that dominates.

Unlike the swirling intersecting patterns that fill Pollock’s earlier work, Number 28 has a more subtle overall feel; the white lines sometimes do not join and halt in their progress across the canvas.

Despite this departure from the usual style of earlier work, Pollock’s control of the application of the paint creates patterns from the unjoined lines.

The imagery is almost like a net that is falling in upon itself but of course no such image was intended: Pollock sought to release the creative energy of his subconscious, an area which deeply intrigued him, and the psychoanalytic work of Carl Jung drew him into a world that also encompassed his own personal psychotherapy.