$181.2 million Pollock shatters auction record at Christie's

“Number 7A, 1948” by Jackson Pollock sold for $181.2 million with fees at Christie’s in New York. The oil and enamel canvas, painted in Pollock’s Long Island studio when he was 36, is described as an early key example of his floor-based drip technique. The work features black drips with a few red accents and is characterized as freeing Pollock from conventional easel painting. The sale made the painting the fourth most expensive artwork ever sold at auction and surpassed Pollock’s previous 2021 auction record of $61.2 million. Other notable sales included Mark Rothko’s “No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe)” for $98.4 million, Joan Miró’s “Portrait of Madame K.” for $53.5 million, and Constantin Brancusi’s “Danaide” for $107.6 million.

"The roughly three-by-one meter (35 131.5 inches / 88.9 x 334 centimeters) oil and enamel work on canvas, entitled “Number 7A, 1948,” was painted at Pollock’s Long Island, New York, studio when the artist was 36 years old and is considered ait was a key early example of his floorbased drip technique. Christie's described the postwar work, which consists of black drips with a few red accents, as follows, “It is with this work that Pollock finally frees himself from the shackles of conventional 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 eclipsed his own previous 2021 auction record of $61.2 million. “Salvator Mundi,” (Savior of the World), a Renaissance work attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, holds the top spot for the most expensive painting ever sold at auction, hauling in $450 million in 2017. Although works by Pollock have brought as much as $200 million in private sales, Monday's was the priciest ever sold at auction."

"Other works in the sale included US painter Mark Rothko's “No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe),” which sold for $98.4 million; and Catalan artist Joan Miro's “Portrait of Madame K.,“ which went for $53.5 million. “Danaide,” an abstracted head in bronze (ca. 1913) by Romanian artist Constantin Brancusi sold for $107.6 million, making it the second most expensive sculpture ever to be sold at auction."

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