Number 17A

Jackson Pollock created this Number 17A in 1948, one year after introducing his radical drip painting technique. This 34 by 44-inch oil on fiberboard presents a dense web of black, white, red, yellow, and blue paint, layered with such complexity that top and bottom become indistinguishable. Three nearly parallel white brushstrokes cut diagonally across the composition, anchoring the eye against the controlled chaos surrounding them.

Pollock worked with the canvas flat on the ground, dripping and pouring paint from above using sticks and hardened brushes. He moved around all sides of the work, allowing gravity and momentum to guide each application. This action painting approach rejected traditional brushwork and easel techniques, fundamentally changing how artists thought about the physical act of painting.

Life magazine featured this work in a 1949 article asking if Pollock was America's greatest living painter, cementing his reputation as the leading figure in Abstract Expressionism. Kenneth C. Griffin acquired Number 17A privately in 2015 for $200 million, setting a world record at the time. It now hangs displayed at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach.