- Number 6
Explore Further
Number 6 belongs to Jackson Pollock's first triumphant period of dripped-and-poured paintings. Taking the canvas off the easel and laying it on the floor of his studio so that he could work from all four sides, Pollock dripped, poured, and flung enamel paint on the surface, eliminating brushes and literally drawing with the liquid medium.
Revolutionary not only for their technique, these paintings redefined representations of space and the subject of art. Pollock's drip paintings introduced a sense of "all-overness," a lack of compositional focus where any one part of the canvas is just as important or central as any other. The energetic web of color and line the concrete notation of the act of painting became the artist's subject. This active, physical style of painting is now known as Abstract Expressionism, or alternatively, Action Painting. The Abstract Expressionists were a loosely formed group of artists who came of age in post-World War II New York and were concerned with rendering emotive or psychological subject matter in abstract form.
Provenance[Betty Parsons Gallery, New York]; Mr. & Mrs. Burton Tremaine, Jr., Meriden, Connecticut, July 13, 1950–December 30, 1964; purchased by MFAH, 1964.
Exhibition History"Jackson Pollock," Museum of Modern Art, New York, December 19, 1956–February 3, 1957.
"Documenta II," Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany, July 11–October 11, 1959.
"Jackson Pollock," Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, 1961.
"Jackson Pollock," Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, January–February 1964.
"1943-1953: The Decisive Years," Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, January 14–March 1, 1965.
"Two Decades of American Painting," National Museum of Art, Tokyo, October 15–November 27, 1966; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, December 10–January 22, 1967; Lalit Academy, New Delhi, March 25–April 15, 1967; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, June 6–July 8, 1967; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, July 17–August 20, 1967.
"6 Painters," University of Saint Thomas, Houston, February 22–April 2, 1967.
"First India Triennial of Contemporary World Art," New Delhi and Bombay, December 15–May 15, 1968.
"American Abstract Expressionists," Edinburgh Festival Exhibition Fruitmarket Gallery, August 13–September 12, 1981.
"Krasner/Pollock, A Working Relationship," Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York, August 8–October 4, 1981; Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, New York University, November 4–December 12, 1981.
"Pollock Paintings," Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, February 22–April 4, 1982.
"Modern American Paintings: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," The Pinacotheque National Alexandre Soutzos Museum, Athens, September 20–November 7, 1982.
"Direction and Diversity: Twentieth Century Art in the Museum Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, May 21–September 3, 1988.
"Texas Collects Willem de Kooning and His Contemporaries," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 19–May 21, 1995.
"Jackson Pollock: Defining the Heroic," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 2–June 30, 1996.
"Modern and Contemporary Art: Spotlight on the Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 7–August 27, 2000.
"Art at Midcentury: Spotlight on the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, April 13–September 3, 2001.
"A Modern Patronage: de Menil Gifts to American and European Museums," The Menil Collection, Houston, June 8–September 16, 2007.
"Modern and Contemporary Masterworks from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, December 8, 2007–March 2, 2008.
"Jorn & Pollock," Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark, November 16, 2013–Februrary 23, 2014.
"Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots," Dallas Museum of Art, November 20, 2015–March 20, 2016.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.