Number 1A, 1948

American artist Jackson Pollock created this monumental canvas in 1948, one of his earliest fully realized drip paintings. Working on unstretched canvas laid on the studio floor, he dripped, poured, and flung paint using sticks and hardened brushes. The result is a dense web of lines in black, white, and subtle colors, including handprints visible in the upper right.

Pollock mixed artist-quality oils with industrial enamel house paints, breaking every rule of fine art materials. He abandoned the easel entirely, walking around and within the canvas, claiming he could "literally be in the painting." His wife Lee Krasner explained why he stopped using titles: "Numbers are neutral."

The Museum of Modern Art acquired the painting in 1950, the first Pollock drip painting to enter their collection. A 1958 fire in an adjacent gallery exposed it to smoke damage. Conservation revealed that the handprints, always visible, were more prominent than previously thought, showing how Pollock used his own body as a painting tool.