A recently completed, ten month study of Jackson Pollock’s One: Number 31, 1950, has revealed new insights into the the artist’s work and practice, as well as a number of layers of paint that had been added to the work after Pollock had died. Evidence points to new areas of paint added by Pollock’s friend and dealer Ben Heller, perhaps in an attempt to improve the presentation of the work. The restoration, done by the Museum of Modern Art, also uncovered that Pollock had added final elements to the work after he had completed the initial painting, showing that they were not in fact grand exercises of impulsive action, but rather “really carefully conceived compositions.” As conservator James Coddington says, “(he) looked at these paintings with a level of detail that was so great even we can’t understand it.”
Read more at The New York Times
