A painting by American Abstract Expressionist painter Jackson Pollock sold for $181.2 million (€156.2 million) plus fees at Christie’s auction house in New York on Monday, a blockbuster day for the institution.
The approximately three-by-one-metre (35 × 131.5 in / 88.9 x 334 cm) oil and enamel work on canvas, titled “No. 7A, 1948”, was painted in Pollock’s Long Island, New York studio when the artist was 36 and is believed to be an important early example of his floor-based drip technique.
Christie has described the post-war work, which consists of black drops with some red accents, as “It is with this work that Pollock finally frees himself from the shackles of traditional easel painting and produces one of the first truly abstract paintings in the history of art.”
The record sale made Pollock’s canvas the fourth most expensive artwork ever sold at auction and surpassed its previous 2021 auction record of $61.2 million.
“Salvator Mundi,” (Savior of the World), Leonardo da Vinci’s Renaissance masterpiece, holds the top spot for the most expensive painting ever sold at auction, fetching $450 million in 2017.
Although private sales of Pollock’s works have fetched up to $200 million, Monday’s auction was the most expensive ever.
Other works in the sale included American painter Mark Rothko’s “Number 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe)”, which sold for $98.4 million; and Catalan artist Joan Miró’s “Portrait of Madame K.”, which sold for $53.5 million.
“Danaide” (circa 1913), an abstract head painted in bronze by the Romanian artist Constantin Brancusi, sold for $107.6 million, making it the second most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction.
Hard-drinking artistic trailblazer Pollock leads $1.1 billion evening at Christie’s
Born in Cody, Wyoming in 1912, Pollock moved to New York in 1930 and studied at the renowned Art Students League in New York under the tutelage of Thomas Hart Benton, who became his mentor and friend.
After working for the US government’s WPA Federal Art Project between 1938 and 1942, Pollock joined the group of artists at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century Gallery in New York.
He became an established cultural figure in the city and gained national fame life The magazine ran a story on him titled, “Jackson Pollock: Is He the Greatest Living Painter in the United States?”
Pollock, who was married to fellow abstract painter Lee Krasner, was an unstable man who struggled with alcohol addiction throughout his life.
He died in a single-vehicle car accident while driving drunk in 1956, at the peak of his career.
His works have become part of the canon of Western art history and are included in the collections of many important museums around the world.
In total, Monday’s three-hour sale at Christie’s brought in $1.1 billion.
The 16 lots included in the Newhouse sale alone were worth $630.8 million. The sale of 20th century works brought in additional income of $490.3 million.
Edited by: Louis Olofse