Where Is One: Number 31, 1950? Museum Location

Q: How did Pollock create drip paintings?

Pollock laid unstretched canvas on the floor and moved around it, dripping paint from sticks, brushes, and cans. He called this 'action painting.' The physical process became part of the artwork.

Q: Why is One: Number 31 important?

The painting represents the peak of Pollock's drip period (1947-1950). Its scale and energy helped establish Abstract Expressionism as the dominant art movement of the postwar era.

Q: Why did Pollock use numbers for titles?

Pollock numbered works to avoid suggesting subject matter. He wanted viewers to experience the paintings purely, without narrative associations. 'One' was added later for a retrospective.

Jackson Pollock made this One: Number 31, 1950 using his radical drip technique. The massive canvas (nearly 9 by 18 feet) lay on the floor while Pollock moved around it, dripping, pouring, and flicking enamel paint from sticks and hardened brushes.

The result is a dense web of black, white, and tan lines with no focal point or composition in the traditional sense. Pollock called it "energy and motion made visible." The painting marked the peak of Abstract Expressionism and established New York as the new center of the art world. It hangs in MoMA.

Pollock laid unstretched canvas on the floor and moved around it, dripping paint from sticks, brushes, and cans. He called this 'action painting.' The physical process became part of the artwork.

The painting represents the peak of Pollock's drip period (1947-1950). Its scale and energy helped establish Abstract Expressionism as the dominant art movement of the postwar era.

Pollock numbered works to avoid suggesting subject matter. He wanted viewers to experience the paintings purely, without narrative associations. 'One' was added later for a retrospective.

One: Number 31, 1950

Details

Where to See It

The Artist

More by Jackson Pollock

Summertime: Number 9A

Also at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

Broadway Boogie Woogie

Bird in Space

Simultaneous Contrasts: Sun and Moon

Grapes

Related Abstract Expressionism Works

Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow

Composition VIII

Village Church

Calves in a Field Bordered by Willow Trees

Untitled

Woman and child in front of a farm

Portrait of a Girl with Flowers

Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red

About One: Number 31, 1950

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