Number 15 (section)

Ropes of black paint loop and collide across a pale cream background, refusing to form anything you can name. This is part of Number 15, painted by Jackson Pollock in 1950, right in the middle of the stretch that many consider his finest years. By then he had made his name with the "drip" method, spreading his canvas on the floor and moving around all sides of it, dripping and pouring paint rather than dabbing it on with a brush. He described the feeling as being inside the work, almost dancing as he circled it.

Most people picture Pollock's paintings bursting with color, so the strict black and cream palette here comes as a surprise. The tangled lines keep shifting, and your eyes may hunt for faces or figures buried somewhere in the knot, though none ever fully appear. Pollock was part of Abstract Expressionism, the wave of American artists who channeled big feelings onto enormous canvases in the years after World War II. Some viewers read freedom and joy in these swirls, others sense tension or unease, and Pollock was happy to let everyone decide for themselves.