Jackson Pollock, Alchemy

1947

Paintings sorted by Historical period | Painter | Subject matter | Pigments used

Overview

Medium: Oil, aluminum, alkyd enamel paint with sand, pebbles, fibers, and broken wooden sticks
Support: canvas
Size: 114.6 x 221.3 cm

Art movement: Abstract Expressionism
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy
Painting

Jackson Pollock’s Alchemy is a seminal work of abstract expressionism and is one of the early works from the drip period. The pigment palette is unusually rich and consists of organic and inorganic pigments.

The pigment analysis revealed the use of mostly oil-based paints such as Lead white, zinc white, titanium dioxide white, cadmium yellow, cadmium orange, cadmium red, Toluidine red, red ochre, manganese violet, phthalocyanine green, viridian, phthalocyanine blue, artificial ultramarine, and carbon black

Pigments

Pigment Analysis

This pigment analysis is based on the work of F. Rosi and coworkers (1). The investigators used a wide variety of spectroscopic methods from visible and infrared spectroscopy to Raman spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy.

Jackson Pollock, Alchemy, 1947. The entirety of locations in the painting investigated by the above mentioned scientific methods.
Image courtesy of the authors (1) under Creative Commons license.

White paints: 1. Lead white 2. Commercial preparation containing zinc white and titanium dioxide white.
Yellow paints: Cadmium yellow
Orange paints: Cadmium orange
Red paints: 1. Cadmium red 2. Toluidine red (PR 3)
Deep red paints: Red ochre
Violet paints: manganese violet
Green paints: 1. Phthalocyanine green 2. Viridian
Blue paints: 1. Phthalocyanine blue 2. artificial ultramarine
Black paints: Carbon black
Silver paints: Aluminum

References

(1) F. Rosi, C. Grazia, R. Fontana, F. Gabrieli, L. Pensabene Buemi, E. Pampaloni, A. Romani, C. Stringari and C. Miliani, Disclosing Jackson Pollock’s palette in Alchemy (1947) by non-invasive spectroscopies, Heritage Science 2016, 4:18

Pigments Used in This Painting

Phthalocyanine green

Titanium dioxide white

Phthalocyanine blue

Manganese violet

Cadmium red

Cadmium orange

Zinc white

Cadmium yellow

Lead white

Viridian

Red ochre

Ultramarine artificial

Resources

Videos

Video: 'Portrait of an Artist: Jackson Pollock' by KunstSpektrum

Video: 'The Case for Jackson Pollock' by The Art Assignment

Publications and Websites

Publications