Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist)

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) was the leading figure of Abstract Expressionism, known for the drip paintings that he created between 1947 and 1950 by pouring, dripping, and flinging paint onto canvases laid on the floor of his studio. Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist) is one of the most celebrated of the drip paintings, named by the critic Clement Greenberg for its lavender-colored passages that emerge from the interlace of black, silver, and white paint. The painting was created by Pollock's signature technique of moving around the canvas on all fours, dripping paint from cans and sticks in a controlled yet improvisatory manner that allowed the painting to record the physical movements of the artist's body.

Lavender Mist is one of the most important paintings in the history of 20th-century art because it represents the moment when Pollock's drip technique achieved its most harmonious and beautiful result. The painting's interlace of black, silver, white, and lavender creates a visual density that eliminates any suggestion of figure or ground, foreground or background, and the result is a painting that exists entirely in the present tense of the viewer's perception—an event rather than a representation. This quality of immediate presence influenced every subsequent movement in abstract painting.

Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist) is Pollock's drip technique at its most harmonious: an interlace of black, silver, white, and lavender that eliminates figure and ground, creating a painting that exists entirely in the present tense of perception. Named by Clement Greenberg for its lavender passages, the 1950 painting is one of the most celebrated works of Abstract Expressionism.