No. 5, 1948:

No. 5, 1948 is a painting by Jackson Pollock, an American painter known for his contributions to the Abstract Expressionist movement. This painting was sold in May 2006 for $140 million. The painting was done on an 8' x 4' sheet of fiberboard, with thick amounts of brown and yellow paint drizzled on top of it, forming a nest-like appearance. For the paint, Pollock chose to use liquid paints. More specifically, they were synthetic resin paints (gloss enamel) but are referred to as oil paints for classification of the work. He used unique methods to make his drips.

On inspection it was grey, brown, white and yellow paint drizzled in a way that many people still perceive as a "dense bird's nest".

NO.5, 1948

It was initially purchased by Alfonso A. Ossorio during an exhibition in 1949 for 1,500 dollars, who was looking for a paint drip work to add to his collection. While the painting was being shipped, it was damaged, so Pollock attempted several times to repair the damage by painting over it, but Osorio claimed that he could tell the difference. Pollock instead ended up repainting almost the whole thing, resulting in a different painting from the original, and he reportedly stated that no one would ever be able to tell the difference because no one ever knows how to "look at" his paintings.

Ossorio did notice the difference, but he found it to be a positive change, and described the painting as having more depth of character, but still retaining the essence of the original, and even expanding on it. Ossorio calls "a wonderful example of an artist having a second chance".

DAMAGE AND REWORK

The painting was modified by Pollock after it was originally created. During January 1949, it was being shown in a solo Pollock show at the Betty Parsons gallery. It was from here that Alfonso A. Ossorio decided to purchase a "paint drip" composition; he chose No. 5, 1948 and paid $1,500. It was the only canvas sold from the show. At some point, presumably during the moving process, the painting became damaged, according to Grace Hartigan. "Home Sweet Home [the shipping company] came in with a painting in one hand and a lump of paint from the center of the painting in the other hand."Hartigan gave Pollock some paint and he patched the painting before it went to Ossorio, saying "He'll never know, never know."

When the painting was subsequently delivered to Ossorio, he claimed that he noticed "a portion of the paint - actually the skin from the top of an opened paint can - had slid" leaving a "nondescript smear amidst the surrounding linear clarity," as he explained in a 1978 lecture at Yale. Pollock offered to rework the painting but, according to Hartigan, he "repainted the whole thing again" and stated that "He'll never know. No one knows how to look at my paintings, he won't know the difference." After three weeks, Ossorio visited Pollock's studio to inspect the painting.

Ossorio was confronted with an artwork which was repainted onto fiberboard, with "new qualities of richness and depth" as a result of Pollock's "thorough but subtle repainting." It was clear that Ossorio still liked the painting despite the rework, and continued to attest that the "original concept remained unmistakably present, but affirmed and fulfilled by a new complexity and depth of linear interplay. It was, and still is a masterful display of control and disciplined vision." Pollock repaired the damage to the painting by completely repainting the original, in contrast to how other artworks are repaired. The reconstruction had not only retained but reinforced the metaphysical concept of the painting, and has become what Ossorio calls "a wonderful example of an artist having a second chance".

The follwing are his famous paintings.