The Met acquired this monumental "drip" painting by Pollock in 1957, the year following the artist’s unexpected death—a sign of how quickly his reinvention of painting was accepted into the canon of modern art. However revolutionary in technique, Pollock’s large-scale work was rooted in the muralism of the 1930s, including the art of Thomas Hart Benton (see America Today, MMA 2012.478a–j) and David Alfaro Siqueiros, both of whom he had worked alongside. Pollock proclaimed in 1947: "I intend to paint large movable pictures which will function between the easel and the mural. . . . the tendency of modern feeling is towards the wall picture or mural." This work’s title suggests not only the month in which he painted it (October), but also an alignment with nature’s constant flux.
#2080. Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)
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2080. Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)
134. The Director's Tour, Second Floor: Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), Part 1
5878. The Director's Tour, Second Floor: Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), Part 2
Inscription: Signed and dated (recto, lower right): Jackson Pollock 50
the artist, Springs, N. Y. (1950–d. 1956; his estate, 1956–57; sold through Sidney Janis Gallery, New York to MMA)
New York. Betty Parsons Gallery. "Jackson Pollock," November 28–December 16, 1950, no catalogue.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "15 Americans," April 9–July 27, 1952, unnumbered cat. (p. 46; as "Number 30," lent by Betty Parsons Gallery).
Bennington College. "A Retrospective Show of the Paintings of Jackson Pollock," November 17–21, 1952, no catalogue.
Williamstown. Lawrence Art Gallery. "A Retrospective Show of the Paintings of Jackson Pollock," December 1–21, 1952, no catalogue.
New York. Sidney Janis Gallery. "15 Years of Jackson Pollock," November 28–December 31, 1955, no. 11 ( as "Autumn Rhythm").
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Jackson Pollock," December 19, 1956–February 3, 1957, no. 26 (as "Autumn Rhythm," lent by the Sidney Janis Gallery, New York).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Three Centuries of American Painting," April 9–October 17, 1965, unnum. checklist (as "Autumn Rhythm").
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Jackson Pollock," April 5–June 4, 1967, no. 50.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940–1970," October 18, 1969–February 8, 1970, no. 310 (as "Autumn Rhythm").
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Masterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 16–November 1, 1970, unnumbered cat. (p. 117: as "Autumn Rhythm").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 14, 1970–June 1, 1971, no. 396 (as "Autumn Rhythm").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Tribute to a Curator: Robert Beverly Hale," November 16, 1978–March 4, 1979, extended to March 18, 1979, unnum. checklist.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Summer Loan Exhibition," July 17–September 30, 1979, unnum. brochure.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Recent Acquisitions from the Department of Twentieth Century Art," October 16, 1979–January 30, 1980, no catalogue.
Paris. Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou. "Jackson Pollock," January 21–April 19, 1982, unnumbered cat. (pp. 178–79; as "Autumn Rhythm: Number 30").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selection One: Twentieth-Century Art," February 1–April 30, 1985, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selection Three: Twentieth-Century Art," October 22, 1985–January 26, 1986, no catalogue.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Jackson Pollock," November 1, 1998–February 2, 1999, unnumbered cat. (pls. 182 and 183; as "Autumn Rhythm").
Robert M. Coates. "The Art Galleries: Extremists." New Yorker (December 9, 1950), p. 110, notes that all of the works in Exh. New York 1950 are only identified by numbers, which "makes referencing them a bit dull"; criticizes no. 30 [this work] as an example of the overall composition suffering at the expense of "a clutter of more or less meaningless embellishment".
Robert Goodnough. "Pollock Paints a Picture." Art News 50 (May 1951), pp. 40–41,60–61, ill., incorrectly calls this painting "Number 4, 1950"; chronicles its creation from beginning to end, documented in photographs by Hans Namuth.
"Fashion: Spring Ball Gowns." Vogue 117 (March 1, 1951), ill. pp. 156–59 (Cecil Beaton photographs, background for fashion spread, color).
Dore Ashton. "Art." Arts and Architecture 73 (January 1956), p. 10.
Sam Hunter. Jackson Pollock. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 1956, p. 12, 35, no. 26 (also published in the "Bulletin of the Museum of Modern Art, vol. 24, no.2).
Robert Beverly Hale. "The American Moderns." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 16 (Summer 1957), p. 27, ill.
Sam Hunter. Pollock. Exh. cat., The International Council at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 1957, unpaginated, states that Pollock achieved a full state of freedom in this work.
Thomas B. Hess. "For Spacious Skies, and All That." Art News 56 (November 1957), fig. 7.
J[ames]. J. R[orimer]. "Notes." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 16 (Summer 1957), unpaginated.
Dorothy Adlow. "Metropolitan's New Look." Christian Science Monitor (October 26, 1957), p. 10.
Sam Hunter. Jackson Pollock 1912–1956. Exh. cat., Whitechapel Gallery , organized by The International Council at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. London, 1958, p. 12, states that this painting was recently acquired by the MMA and was therefore not available for inclusion in this exhibition.
Allan Kaprow. "The Legacy of Jackson Pollock." Art News 57 (October 1958), ill. p. 24 (installation photo), states that the MMA purchased this painting for a record $30,000.
John Canaday. Mainstreams of Modern Art. New York, 1959, p. 189, pl. 213, calls it "Autumn Rhythm"; comments that Monet's late waterlily pictures anticipate Pollock's drip technique.
Frank O'Hara in Peter Selz. New Images of Man. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 1959, p. 123, states that works such as this one are "more obviously astonishing inventions" than Pollock's later black and white paintings of 1951.
Frank O'Hara. Jackson Pollock. New York, 1959, pp. 14, 26, 30, colorpl. 50.
Sam Hunter. Modern American Painting and Sculpture. New York, 1959, p. 150.
Alfred Frankfurter. "Midas on Parnassus." Art News Annual 28 (1959), p. 61, ill. p. 49 (color), calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Dorothy Seiberling. "Baffling U.S. Art: What It Is About." Life 47 (November 9, 1959), pp. 68–69, ill. (color; installation view of its examination by James R. Rorimer, then director of MMA), calls this painting's composition "costly clottings"; quotes Rorimer describing it as "challenging, timely, and exciting".
Dorothy Seiberling. "Baffling U.S. Art—What It Is About." Life 47 (November 9, 1959), pp. 68–80, ill. pp. 68–69 (color detail).
Bryan Robertson. Jackson Pollock. New York, 1960, pp. 20, 102, 138 pl. 153, describes Pollock's use of colors in this work as "atmospheric" and relates them to the cool winter landscapes around the artist's home in East Hampton.
Daniel M. Mendelowitz. A History of American Art. 1st ed. New York, 1960, p. 600, fig. 21–9.
Irving Lavin. "Abstraction in Modern Painting: A Comparison." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 19 (February 1961), pp. 166–69, fig. 2, provides a detailed description of the process in making this picture, surmising it took "six hours of actual painting time to execute this picture"; calls it "a landscape at a particular season" but considers the title to be "all but inconsequential, if not actually accidental"; compares it to Joseph Stella's "Spring" (1914, Yale University Art Gallery).
Clement Greenberg. "The Jackson Pollock Market Soars." New York Times (April 16, 1961), ill. p. SM43.
Richard H. Rush. Art as an Investment. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1961, ill. p. 93.
John Ives Sewall. A History of Western Art. 2nd rev. ed [1st ed. 1953]. New York, 1961, p. 903, fig. 17.30.
Burne Hogarth. "Outline of American Painting: American Leadership of World Art (1945–1962)." American Artist 26 (June–July–August 1962), ill. p. 123, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
John McCoubrey. American Tradition in Painting. New York, 1963, p. 116, pl. 59.
Henry Geldzahler. American Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York, 1965, pp. 186–87, ill. pp. 184–85, comments that over the years, this painting "has changed for many viewers from the arbitrary to the inevitable, from seeming to be an angry diatribe against art to an elegant statement".
A. L. Chanin. Art Guide/ New York. New York, 1965, p. 101, fig. 153.
Francis V. O'Connor. "The Genesis of Jackson Pollock, 1912 to 1943." PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, 1965, p. 124, claims that Pollock's use of color as linear structuring in this painting, as well as in his other drip paintings, reflects his early training with Thomas Hart Benton, and were chosen for their expressive and associative potential.
Doris Reno. "Miami's Old 17th Century Friend Found Shining in a New Setting." Miami Herald (August 22, 1965), p. 21E, calls it "Autumn".
Hilton Kramer. "Art: Looking Back at Jackson Pollock. Modern Museum Puts 172 Works on View." New York Times (April 5, 1967), p. 44, claims that drip paintings like this work do not hold up against those of the modern European masters.
William Rubin. "Jackson Pollock and the Modern Tradition, Part I." Artforum 7 (February 1967), pp. 14, 20, 22 n. 16, ill. p. 21, identifies this work as one of Pollock's few wall–size pictures from his "classic middle period"; erroneously locates it in the Museum of Modern Art, New York in the caption.
Harold Rosenberg. "The Art World: The Mythic Act." New Yorker (May 6, 1967), p. 169.
William Rubin. "Jackson Pollock and the Modern Tradition, Part II." Artforum 5 (March 1967), pp. 29, 33, states that this picture remains more linear than other drip paintings which recall the "color spots" of late Impressionism; compared to the late Impressionists, claims that Pollock's composition allows the allusion to nature in this work's title to take on a metaphoric quality, fusing the landscape and cityscape into a single image.
Dore Ashton. "New York Commentary." Studio International 174 (July/August 1967), p. 47, calls it "Autumn rhythms".
Finley Eversole. "Jackson Pollock Retrospective; Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd. Street, New York, N.Y." Theology Today 24 (April 1967–January 1968), p. 255, states that this painting, like most of Pollock's drip paintings, are denser at the bottom and therefore cannot be turned upside down because then the composition would be "unbearably top–heavy"; perceives a "sense of spirituality" in pictures such as this one in which the composition appears to become lighter from bottom to top.
Bartlett Jones. "Jackson Pollock Retrospective." America 117 (September 23, 1967), p. 329.
Richard McLanathan. The American Tradition in the Arts. New York, 1968, ill. p. 444.
Jerrold Morris. On the Enjoyment of Modern Art. 2nd rev. ed. [1st ed. 1965]. Greenwich, Conn., 1968, pp. 50–51, 71, pl. 14.
Leo Lerman. The Museum: One Hundred Years and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1969, ill. pp. 332–33, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Henry Geldzahler. New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940–1970. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1969, pp. 20, 56, no. 310, ill. p. 270.
Gregory Battcock. "Re–Evaluating Abstract Expressionism." Arts Magazine 44 (December 1969/January 1970), ill. p. 47, incorrectly identifies this painting as still belonging to the estate of the artist.
Mahonri Sharp Young. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art Centenary Exhibitions I. The New York School." Apollo 90 (November 1969), p. 430, fig. 2, calls it "Autumn Rhythm"; calls Pollock one of the heroes of the exhibition.
C.H. Waddington. Behind Appearance: A Study of the Relations Between Painting and the Natural Sciences in this Century. Cambridge, Mass., 1969, p. 145, pl. 88, describes this painting as "the interconnection of everything with everything else, the flickering surface of evanescent thoughts just below the threshold of consciousness. You can explore it in a search for whatever you may bring with you to find".
Lawrence Alloway. "Pollock's Black Paintings." Arts Magazine 43 (May 1969), p. 40.
Hilton Kramer. "30 Years of the New York School." New York Times Magazine (October 12, 1969), p. 31, ill., calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Kenneth Clark. Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1970, p.327, pl. 396.
Irving Sandler. The Triumph of American Painting: A History of Abstract Expressionism. New York, 1970, pp. 116, 118, fig. 8–12.
Cindy Nemser. "Art Criticism and Perceptual Research." Art Journal 29 (Spring 1970), ill. p. 326.
Thomas M. Folds inMasterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. New York, [1970], p. 117, ill. (color), calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Barbara Rose. Frankenthaler. New York, [1970], p. 29, describes Frankenthaler's first experience of this painting as "blinding".
Lillian Freedgood. An Enduring Image: American Painting from 1665. New York, 1970, ill. p. 343.
Michael Fried. Morris Louis. New York, [1971], p. 16, pl. 6.
George M. Cohen. A History of American Art. New York, 1971, p. 226, colorpl. 32 (sideways).
Charlotte Willard. Famous Modern Artists: From Cézanne to Pop Art. New York, 1971, pp. 24–25, ill. (color), calls it "Autumn Rhythm (No. 30)"; first time called by current title.
Judith Wolfe. "Jungian Aspects of Jackson Pollock's Imagery." Artforum 11 (November 1972), p. 72, states that Pollock named this work himself, unlike most of his other works which were titled by others or through a group effort.
B. H. Friedman. Jackson Pollock: Energy Made Visible. New York, 1972, pp. xx, 127, 142, 166–67, 194, 212, 242–43, ill. n.p. (Namuth photographs), asserts that the numbers assigned to works in Exh. New York 1950 were arbitrary and that this work (No. 30) was executed in September or October 1950, before No. 29; states that the MMA initially declined purchasing this work for $10,000 before Pollock's death; relates that while the painting was on special view at the MMA a group of school children "expressed a degree of interest and response" that convinced the museum's Board of Trustees to move forward with the acquisition; states that the $30,000 purchase included Krasner taking back a previously–purchased Pollock and crediting the museum $10,000, thus establishing the initial stage of posthumous Pollock prices.
Henri Dorra. Art in Perspective: A Brief History. New York, [1972], pp. 264, 267, fig. 19–6 (color).
Makoto O–Oka. "Abstraction and Lyricism." Art Now. Vol. 8, 1972, pp. 26–27, ill. (color).
Nora B. Beeson. Guide to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1972, pp. 284–85, ill.
Sam Hunter and John Jacobus. American Art of the Twentieth Century: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. New York, 1973, p. 245, includes this painting among other monumental Pollock and de Kooning works as instigating a "radical new factor of projection into the spectator's environment".
Ellen H. Johnson. "Jackson Pollock and Nature." Studio International 185 (June 1973), pp. 258–61, ill., remarks that this picture was one of several that Pollock renamed from numbers to titles that reflect his immersion in the natural landscape of East Hampton; states that this painting's colors of "sere brown, taupe and black, shot with glimpses of crisp teal blue" are appropriate for the title "Autumn Rhythm".
Harry Rand. "The 1930s and Abstract Expressionism." The Genius of American Painting. Ed. John Wilmerding. New York, 1973, ill. p. 271.
Robert Rosenblum. Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic Tradition: Friedrich to Rothko. New York, 1975, p. 203, fig. 297, lists this work among Pollock's titles that suggest natural phenomena.
Frank O'Hara. Art Chronicles 1954–1966. New York, 1975, pp. 16, 32, 36.
Michèle Cone. The Roots and Routes of Art in the 20th Century. New York, 1975, p. 189, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
John Russell. The Meanings of Modern Art. Vol. 10, America Redefined. New York, 1975, p. 28, fig. 39, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Shirley Glubok. The Art of America Since World War II. New York, 1976, pp. 14–15, ill.
Edward Lucie-Smith. Art Today: From Abstract Expressionism to Superrealism. Oxford, 1977, p. 58, colorpl. 43.
E. A. Carmean Jr. inAmerican Art at Mid-Century: The Subjects of the Artist. Exh. cat., National Art Gallery. Washington, D.C., 1978, pp. 127, 133–41, 146–48, 150–52, ill. p. 46 and fig. 18, figs. 2, 17, 20 (studio photos), fig. 19 (filtered photograph), refers to it by the alternate titles "Number 31" and "Number 30"; dates it summer 1950 based on Burckhardt's (July or August) and Namuth's (September–late October) photographs; asserts that this work was kept on the floor during its entire creation and not studied by the artist vertically, as was typical with his smaller canvases; based on Burckhardt's and Namuth's photographs, suggests that the presence of the smaller canvases in the studio influenced the creation of this work; identifies this work as Pollock's last large–scale drip painting and likens its "crisscrossings" of paint to Cezanne's passage planes.
Barbara Rose. "Pollock's Studio: Interview with Lee Krasner." Pollock Painting. Ed. Barbara Rose. New York, 1978, unpaginated, Krasner comments that Pollock's creation of large–scale paintings, such as this work, was prompted by the larger space available after moving into the barn studio on his East Hampton property.
Francis V. O'Connor. "Hans Namuth's Photographs of Jackson Pollock as Art Historical Documentation." Pollock Painting. Ed. Barbara Rose. New York, 1978, unpaginated, ill.(studio and gallery photos), states that Namuth's pictures document that this painting was included in Pollock's 1950 one–man exhibition at the Betty Parson's Gallery in New York; discusses one Namuth photograph of this picture in progress, noting that a beam of sunlight emphasizes the movement of Pollock's arm and casts his face into a resemblance to Charles Baudelaire; concludes that "the great French writer and the great American painter both understood the essential link between artistic and natural process".
Francis Valentine O'Connor and Eugene Victor Thaw, ed. Jackson Pollock: A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Drawings, and Other Works. Vol. 2, Paintings, 1948–1955. New Haven, 1978, pp. 116–19, no. 297, ill.
David Bourdon inJackson Pollock: New–Found Works. Exh. cat., Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven, 1978.
David M. Quick. "Meaning in the Art of Barnett Newman and Three of His Contemporaries: A Study of Content in Abstract Expressionism." PhD diss., University of Iowa, 1978, p. 309, fig. 22.
William Rubin. "Pollock as Jungian Illustrator: The Limits of Psychological Criticism, Part II." Art in America 67 (December 1979), pp. 82, 86, refers to a 1969 interview with Lee Krasner attributing the remark "I choose to veil the imagery" to Pollock, quoting Krasner's further clarification: "Pollock made the remark about 'veiling' in reference to 'There Were Seven in Eight,' and it doesn't necessarily apply to other paintings–certainly not to such pictures as 'Autumn Rhythm,' 'One,' etc.".
René Payant inJackson Pollock: Questions. Exh. cat., Musée d'Art Contemporain. Montreal, 1979, p. 88.
Francis V. O'Connor. "Hans Namuth's Photographs of Jackson Pollock as Art Historical Documentation." Art Journal 39 (Autumn 1979), p. 49 [reprints Ref. O'Connor 1978].
Bernice Rose. Jackson Pollock: Drawing into Painting. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 1980, pp. 10, 20, 25 n. 17.
Francis V. O'Connor. Jackson Pollock: Black Pourings, 1951–1953. Exh. cat., Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Boston, 1980, p. 3.
Phyllis Rosenzweig. The Fifties: Aspects of Painting in New York. Exh. cat., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D.C., 1980, pp. 13–14, 29 n. 20, ill. (Ref. Goodnough 1951).
Albert Elsen. Purposes of Art. 4th ed. [1st ed. 1962]. New York, 1981, pp. 288–89, colorpl. 37, calls this painting a "portable canvas mural" which "constitutes a new, physically impenetrable, and unstable environment".
John Russell. The Meanings of Modern Art. New York, 1981, pp. 312–13, ill., calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Richard Martin. "'The New Soft Look': Jackson Pollock, Cecil Beaton, and American Fashion in 1951." Dress 7, no. 1 (1981), p. 2, fig. 1 (installation photo of Exh. New York 1950) and fig. 5 (Beaton photograph).
Lowery S. Sims inProfil du Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York: de Ramsès à Picasso. Exh. cat., Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux. Bordeaux, 1981, p. 167.
Lisa M. Messinger. "Twentieth Century Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1981–1982. New York, [1982], p. 57, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Michael Brenson. "Met Museum Gets Pollock Works." New York Times (December 22, 1982), p. C15.
Richard Eder. "After a Strike, Paris Gets to See 63 Pollocks." New York Times (February 9, 1982), p. C8.
Grace Glueck. "Met Acquires Early Pollock." New York Times (January 13, 1982), p. C19.
E. A. Carmean Jr. inJackson Pollock. Exh. cat., Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou. Paris, 1982, pp. 58, 67–68, ill. pp. 178–79 (color).
Annette Cox. Art–As–Politics: The Abstract Expressionist Avant–Garde and Society. 2nd ed. [1st ed. 1977]. Ann Arbor, 1982, p. 83, fig. 21.
William S. Lieberman. "Lieberman's Acquisitions." Art/World 6 (February 22/March 22, 1982), p. 10.
Elizabeth Frank. Jackson Pollock. New York, 1983, p. 75, fig. 77 (color), calls it "Autumn Rhythm: Number 30, 1950"; comments that it "is one of Pollock's most elegiac paintings" with colors that communicate an "intensely private, yet exalted feeling".
Charles W. Millard. "Jackson Pollock." Hudson Review 36 (Summer 1983), p. 343.
William S. Lieberman inJackson Pollock: Opere 1930–1956. Exh. cat., Palazzo Venezia. Rome, 1983, p. 11.
Budd Hopkins. "The Drawings of Willem de Kooning." Drawing 5 (March—April 1984), p. 121.
Yves Michaud inWillem de Kooning. Exh. cat., Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou. Paris, 1984, p. 21.
Jeffrey Potter. To A Violent Grave: An Oral Biography of Jackson Pollock. New York, 1985, pp. 134, 197, 272, quotes Betty Parsons' comment that Pollock's second show at her gallery [Exh. New York 1950] "was a disaster" with the asking price for this painting of $1,200; includes Robert Beverly Hale's recollection of the MMA purchase price of $20,000 in addition to trading in "Number 17, 1951" along with a trustee's remark, "a work that big must have some value".
Sam Hunter and John Jacobus. Modern Art: Painting/Sculpture/Architecture. 2nd. ed. (1st ed. 1977). New York, 1985, pp. 274–75, fig. 493 (color).
Shunsuke Kijima and William S. Lieberman. Drawings Jackson Pollock: Loan Exhibition from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Shoto Museum of Art. Tokyo, 1985, unpaginated, ill.
Dierdre Robson. "The Market for Abstract Expressionism: The Time Lag Between Critical and Commercial Acceptance." Archives of American Art Journal. no. 3, 1985, p. 419, cites Paul Cumming's interview with Sidney Janis (1972) for the Archives of American Art's Oral History Project in which the dealer recounts how Barr passed on this painting for MoMA after its price went up after the artist's death, enabling the MMA to purchase it.
Yoshiaki Tōno. Pollock. Tokyo, 1985, fig. 36 (color).
Piri Halasz. "Manhattan Museums: The 1940s vs. the 1980s; Part Two: The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Arts Magazine 59 (March 1985).
Eugene Victor Thaw. "The Abstract Expressionists." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 44 (Winter 1986–87), pp. 9, 25, 29, 39, fig. 7 (color).
Kay Larson. "The Met Goes Modern: Bill Lieberman's Brave New Wing." New York Magazine 19 (December 15, 1986), pp. 42, 46, 48.
Elyse Topalian. "Modern Art in the Met." Apollo 124 (October 1986), p. 362, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Lisa Mintz Messinger in20th Century Art: Selections from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Vol. 2, Painting: 1945-1985. New York, 1986, pp. 22–23, ill. (color, overall and detail), calls it "Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 70".
William S. Lieberman in20th Century Art: Selections from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Vol. 2, Painting: 1945–1985. New York, 1986, p. 6.
Matthew L. Rohn. Visual Dynamics in Jackson Pollock's Abstractions. Ann Arbor, 1987, pp. 20–21, 28, 34, 36, 39, 50–55, 61, 85–90, 95, p. 144 n. 48, 147 n. 11, p. 148 n. 27, p. 150 n. 10, pl. 4, cites this painting throughout the text as an example of how Pollock's work can be separated into four structural components: microstructure, primary structural configurations, secondary configurations, and format; argues this analysis provides the viewer with a sound understanding of the activity and ordering occuring within the composition.
Deborah Solomon. Jackson Pollock: A Biography. New York, 1987, pp. 209, 212, 214–15, 253.
Lawrence Alloway and Michael Auping inAbstract Expressionism: The Critical Developments. Ed. Michael Auping. Exh. cat., Albright-Knox Art Gallery. New York, 1987, p. 128.
Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 9, The United States of America. New York, 1987, pp. 138–39, colorpl. 104 (overall and detail).
Matt Damsker. "The Met Goes Modern: New Wing a Treasure Box, Even If Collection Has Gaps." Hartford Courant (February 11, 1987), p. C7, ill., calls it "Autumn Rhythm" in text.
Theodore F. Wolff. "Metropolitan Museum of Art: Big Lift from a New Wing." Christian Science Monitor (February 2, 1987), p. 25.
Kathie Beals. "The Met Goes Modern with New 20th-century Wing." Courier-News (February 17, 1987), p. B-5.
Helen Schwartz. "Contemporary Art Wing Opens at Metropolitan." Home News (February 1, 1987), p. E1, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Grace Glueck. "The Met Makes Its Move Into the 20th Century." New York Times (January 18, 1987), p. 20, section 2, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Paul Richard. "Mixing It Up At the Metropolitan: Standards & Surprises at the Museum's New Wallace Wing." Washington Post (February 1, 1987), p. F8.
"The Met's Extra Room." New York Times (January 30, 1987), p. A26, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Edward J. Sozanski. "Going Modern: Metropolitan Opens a Handsome, New Wing." Chicago Tribune (February 8, 1987), p. 13, section 13.
John Dorsey. "New Wing Lifts the Met Into the 20th Century." Sun (Baltimore, Md.) (February 1, 1987), pp. 1K, 12K, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
William Wilson. "A Mod Fan Dance at The Met." Los Angeles Times (February 8, 1987), p. 5, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Amei Wallach. "It's Modern's Time at the Metropolitan." Newsday (January 4, 1987), p. II/11, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Sylvia Hochfield. "Thoroughly Modern Met." Art News 86 (February 1987), p. 116.
Brian O'Doherty. American Masters: The Voice and the Myth. New York, 1988, p. 105, ill. pp. 94–95 (Namuth studio shot).
Diane Waldman. Willem de Kooning. New York, 1988, p. 91, calls it "Autumn Rhythm, Number 30".
Ellen G. Landau. Jackson Pollock. New York, 1989, pp. 196, 213, ill. pp. 12 (Namuth photo), 17–18 (Namuth photos), 207 (Beaton photo), unpaginated pull–out (color).
Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith. Jackson Pollock: An American Saga. New York, 1989, pp. 1, 4, 615–16, 647, 654, 656, 662, 665, 696–97 ill. p. 617, incorrectly state that this picture's asking price when first shown at the Betty Parsons Gallery in November 1950 was $7,500 [see Ref. Potter 1985], and that it did not sell.
Jeffrey Wechsler. Abstract Expressionism, Other Dimensions : An Introduction to Small Scale Painterly Abstraction in America, 1940-1965. Exh. cat., Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables. New Brunswick, N. J., 1989, pp. 71–72, 76.
Lisa M. Messinger in "Recent Acquisitions. A Selection: 1989–1990." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 48 (Fall 1990), p. 77.
Roberta Smith. "Where to See Pollocks." New York Times (February 2, 1990), p. C28.
Douglas Maxwell. "Jackson Pollock." art BookNews (Autumn 1990), p. 11, recounts discovering the splattered floor in Pollock's barn studio after removing a masonite covering, and remarks that one can still discern the colors used to create this painting.
Timothy J. Clark. "Jackson Pollock's Abstraction." Reconstructing Modernism: Art in New York, Paris, and Montreal, 1945-1964. Ed. Serge Guilbaut. Cambridge, Mass., 1990, pp. 173,176, 201, 204, 207, 221, 225, 229, ill. p. 175 [Ref. Vogue 1951], 208, 214 (Namuth photo), 226 (Namuth photo), discusses the use of this painting in the background of Beaton's fashion spread [Ref. Vogue 1951] in terms of "the question of Pollock's paintings' public life"; considers "Autumn Rhythm," with its metaphor of nature, to likely be one of Pollock's own titles; describes this work, along with an El Lissitsky propaganda board, as emblems that "conjure up the purposes of abstract painting...the claim to totality".
Clifford Ross. Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics, An Anthology. New York, 1990, ill. pp. 26–27 (color).
Donald Goddard. American Painting. New York, 1990, p. 251.
Lisa Mintz Messinger inJackson Pollock: Zeichnungen. Exh. cat., Württembergischer Kunstverein. Stuttgart, 1990, p. 65, ill. p. 11 (color).
Ben Heller. Jackson Pollock: Black Enamel Paintings. Exh. cat., Gagosian Gallery. New York, 1990, p. 20.
Lisa Liebmann inLee Krasner: Paintings from 1965 to 1970. Exh. cat., Robert Miller. New York, 1990, unpaginated, calls Lee Krasner's "Combat" (1965; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra) the "Rubensian counterpart" to this painting.
David Anfam. Abstract Expressionism. New York, 1990, p. 129, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Patrick Negri. "Signs of Being: A Study of the Religious Significance of the Art of Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko." PhD diss., Graduate Theological Union, 1990, pp. 180–81, fig. 32, calls it "Autumn Rhythm, Number 30, 1950".
Stephen Polcari. Abstract Expressionism and the Modern Experience. Cambridge, 1991, p. 254, fig. 193, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Erika Doss. Benton, Pollock, and the Politics of Modernism: From Regionalism to Abstract Expressionism. Chicago, 1991, pp. 1, 339, 354, figs. 5.13, 6.9 (Beaton photograph), ill. (title page), states that this painting's mural–size scale "convey[s] Pollock's obvious desire for social interaction".
John R. Lane in Lowery Stokes Sims. Stuart Davis: American Painter. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1991, p. 76, fig. 62.
Marcelin Pleynet. "Art and Literature: Robert Motherwell's 'Riverrun'." Interpreting Contemporary Art. Ed. Stephen Bann and William Allen. New York, 1991, p. 17, calls it "Number 30: Autumn Rhythm".
Stephen Polcari. "Orozco and Pollock: Epic Transfigurations." American Art 6 (Summer 1992), p. 54, fig. 26, relates the "hooks" of paint in this work to the right–angle compositional design of Orozco's fresco "The Trench" (1923, National Preparatory School, Mexico City).
Claude Cernuschi. Jackson Pollock: Meaning and Significance. New York, 1992, pp. 17, 135, 143, figs. 43 (installation photo, Pollock's studio), 55, asserts that this painting still betrays adherence to Pollock's former teacher Thomas Hart Benton's emphasis on dynamic rhythms in a composition; comments that all three monumental drip paintings from 1950 ("Number 32," "One," and "Autumn Rhythm") could be viewed as different layers of the same painting.
April Kingsley. The Turning Point: The Abstract Expressionists and the Transformation of American Art. New York, 1992, pp. 235, 244, 246, 341, 355, 362, 391 n. 74, p. 392 n. 88, ill. cover, pp. 236, 242, 245 (studio photos), relates that Rudolph Burckhardt took photographs of Pollock pretending to work on "Number 32" for Ref. Goodnough 1951, but Namuth's photographs of the artist painting this picture were used instead; notes that Pollock mostly stood at what is now the bottom edge of this work while painting it; suggests that the smaller canvas "Autumn Landscape," visible propped against "Number 32" in Namuth's photographs, may have inspired this larger drip–painting.
Anna C. Chave. "Pollock and Krasner: Script and Postscript." Anthropology and Aesthetics 24 (Autumn 1993), p. 95, fig. 1.
Michael Leja. Reframing Abstract Expressionism: Subjectivity and Painting in the 1940s. New Haven, 1993, pp. 113, 298, relates Namuth's photographs of this work in progress to formal strategies of "public presentation" found in film noir.
Ellen G. Landau. Jackson Pollock. Exh. cat., ACA Galleries. New York, 1993, p. 22.
Barbara Burn, ed. Masterpieces of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 306–7, ill. (color).
Diane Waldman. Roy Lichtenstein. Exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. New York, 1993, pp. 77, 161, fig. 78 (color).
Jonathan Harris. "Modernism and Culture in the USA, 1930–1960." Modernism in Dispute: Art since the Forties. New Haven, 1993, pp. 61–62, colorpl. 58.
Francis Frascina. "The Politics of Representation." Modernism in Dispute: Art since the Forties. New Haven, 1993, pp. 128, 152, 155, pls. 130 (installation photograph, Exh. New York 1950), 134 (Beaton photograph).
Amy Winter inWolfgang Paalen: Zwischen Surrealismus und Abstraktion. Exh. cat., Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Vienna. Klagenfurt, 1993, p. 153, ill. p. 155.
Teruo Fujieda. Jackson Pollock. Tokyo, 1994, ill. p. 197.
Bruce Altshuler. The Avant–Garde in Exhibition: New Art in the 20th Century. New York, 1994, p. 166.
Barbara Burn, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. 2nd rev. ed. (1st ed., 1983). New York, 1994, pp. 446–47, no. 28, ill. (color).
Michael Kimmelman. "At the Met and the Modern with Richard Serra: One Provocateur Inspired by Another." New York Times (August 11, 1995), pp. C1, C26, ill. (installation photo).
Ellen H. Johnson. Modern Art and the Object: A Century of Changing Attitudes. Rev. and enlarged ed. 1995, pp. 114, 116–17 [reprints Ref. Johnson 1973].
W. Jackson Rushing. Native American Art and the New York Avant–Garde: A History of Cultural Primitivism. Austin, 1995, p. 187, fig. 6-25.
Regine Prange. Jackson Pollock, Number 32, 1950: Die Malerei als Gegenwart. Frankfurt, 1996, pp. 22, 30, 58, figs. 19 (Namuth studio photo), 32.
Matthew Rampley. "Identity and Difference: Jackson Pollock and the Ideology of the Drip." Oxford Art Journal 19 (1996), pp. 87–88.
Carter Ratcliff. The Fate of a Gesture: Jackson Pollock and Postwar American Art. New York, 1996, pp. 90–91, 113, 184, 220, fig. 19 (Namuth photograph) and colorpl. 1.
Joseph J. Schildkraut, Alissa J. Hirshfeld, and Jane M. Murphy. "Depressive Disorders, Spirituality and Early Deaths in the Abstract Expressionist Artists of the New York School." Depression and the Spiritual in Modern Art: Homage to Miró. Ed. Joseph J. Schildkraut. West Sussex, 1996, p. 197, fig 18-8 (color).
Holland Cotter. "Prospecting In the Jumble Of Pollock's Earliest Work." New York Times (October 21, 1997), p. E3.
Nan Rosenthal. "The Pollock Sketchbooks: An Introduction." The Jackson Pollock Sketchbooks in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1997, pp. 16, 26, fig. 5.
Philippe Monsel. Jackson Pollock, 1912–1956. Paris, 1997, colorpl. 32.
Lynne Cooke inAlex Katz: Twenty Five Years of Painting from the Saatchi Collection. Ed. David Sylvester. Exh. cat.London, 1997, p. 200.
Ann Eden Gibson. Abstract Expressionism: Other Politics. New Haven, 1997, p. 4.
Carol Mancusi-Ungaro in Jeffrey Weiss. Mark Rothko. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., 1998, pp. 287–88, compares the drips in this work, which Pollock painted on the floor and approached from all sides, to Rothko's process of propping the canvas on its side and then changing its orientation after its execution.
Jed Perl. "Pollock Fever." The New Republic (November 30, 1998), p. 44, states that this painting, along with the other two monumental drip canvases Pollock painted in 1950, are the culmination of his best work.
Paul Richard. "Art: Splash Dance." Washington Post (November 10, 1998), p. B1, ill. p. B9 (Namuth studio photo), calls it "Autumn Rhythm: Number 30, 1950".
Michael Kimmelman. "The Way Even Pollock's Failures Enhance His Triumphs." New York Times (October 30, 1998), p. E34, summarizes Ref. Karmel 1998.
Mark Stevens. "Painter's Punchwindows." New York Magazine (November 9, 1998), p. 65, ill. p. 64 (Namuth studio photo).
Pepe Karmel in Kirk Varnedoe with Pepe Karmel. Jackson Pollock. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 1998, pp. 90–95, 103, 105–7, 114, 118, 120–21, 128, 130–31, 133, figs. 3–4 (Namuth studio photo), 6 (Namuth studio photo), 7–23 (Namuth studio photos), 25 (Namuth studio photo), 91, 107–12 (Namuth studio photos), colorpls. 182–83 (detail and overall), recounts Namuth's visit to Pollock's studio to photograph him at work; addresses the inaccuracies relating to this painting in Ref. Goodnough 1951; discusses composite photographs created from those Namuth took to examine Pollock's painting process.
Kirk Varnedoe in Kirk Varnedoe Pepe Karmel. Jackson Pollock. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 1998, pp. 52, 60, 68, 84 n. 190, figs. 2 (Namuth photo), colorpls. 182–83 (detail and overall), relates how MoMA passed on this painting for $6,000, enabling the MMA to acquire the work after the artist's death for $30,000; notes that there is a discrepancy between sources concerning the original purchase price.
Justin Spring. Carrés d’Art: Jackson Pollock. Paris, 1998, ill. p. 65 (color).
Jane Adlin. Contemporary Ceramics: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1998, p. 6, fig. 7.
Michael Kimmelman. Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and Elsewhere. New York, 1998, pp. xi, xiii, 50, 52, 54, 57, 64, 188, 200–201, ill., calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Michael Leja inMonet in the 20th Century. Ed. Paul Hayes Tucker and Mary Anne Stevens. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 1998, p. 104, fig. 80 (color), calls it "Autumn Rhythm" in the text.
Romy Golan inMonet in the 20th Century. Ed. Paul Hayes Tucker and Mary Anne Stevens. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 1998, p. 96, fig. 73 (Namuth photo), calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Marcelin Pleynet. "Art et Littérature: Riverrun." La Nouvelle Revue Française nos. 546–47 (July–August 1998), p. 91, calls it "Number 30: Automne Rhythm".
T. J. Clark. Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism. New Haven, 1999, pp. 302, 304, 340, 342, 365, p. 440 n. 104, figs. 178 (Beaton photo), 203 (color), states that "nature returns" to Pollock's work in this painting, as demonstrated by its title; claims that Pollock came up with this title on his own, but arrived at it slowly–it is listed as "Number 30, 1950" in the Bennington 1952 retrospective; suggests its qualities directly evoke the natural world through color and drawing; compares the painting's brown tones to dry leaves and bare branches; calls it an "instance of autumn" questioning why this return to nature occured at abstraction's "moment of triumph," concluding that abstract art can never truly be abstract.
James Coddington. "No Chaos Damn It." Jackson Pollock: New Approaches. Ed. Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel. New York, 1999, pp. 103, 105–6, 110, colorpls. 5, 8 (detail), states that the lack of wet–into–wet marbling like that found in "Number 28" suggests that Pollock did not come in physical contact with the canvas while creating this painting.
Jeremy Lewison. Interpreting Pollock. London, 1999, pp. 10, 42, 54, 57, 72, 77, ill. p. 68 (color detail), figs. 45 (color), 61 (Namuth photo), 65 (Beaton photo), comments that the increase in sale price from $6,000 to $30,000 after the artist's death [see Ref. Varnedoe 1998] reflects the posthumous rise in his reputation; notes that this painting was stapled to the wall for Exh. New York 1950; argues that the pink sash of the model in Beaton's photograph complements the tones in this painting, thus feminizing it.
T. J. Clark. "Pollock's Smallness." Jackson Pollock: New Approaches. Ed. Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel. New York, 1999, pp. 18–19, 23, 27, figs. 2, 12 (installation photos, Exh. New York 1950), colorpl. 5, posits that Pollock painted this work in such "monstrous dimensions" as if "that there might be a point, if you got a painting big enough, where the sheer size of the field, and the number of painterly incidents within it, would overwhelm metaphor and put the world in its place".
Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel, ed. "Introduction: Pollock and The Museum of Modern Art." Jackson Pollock: New Approaches. New York, 1999, pp. 11, 13 n. 13, relates that Alfred H. Barr asked Sidney Janis to put this painting on reserve for possible purchase during its installation in the Museum of Modern Art's 1956 Pollock exhibition for an agreed upong price of $6,000; notes that after the price increased to $30,000 after Pollock's death, Barr passed, enabling the MMA to acquire the work.
Robert Storr. "A Piece of the Action." Jackson Pollock: New Approaches. Ed. Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel. New York, 1999, p. 61.
Pepe Karmel. "A Sum of Destructions." Jackson Pollock: New Approaches. Ed. Kirk Varnedoe. New York, 1999, pp. 89, 92, colorpl. 5, suggests that this painting began with some sort of figurative imagery, noting that Pollock had a consistent repertory of figures and marks.
Carol C. Mancusi–Ungaro. "Jackson Pollock: Response as Dialogue." Jackson Pollock: New Approaches. Ed. Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel. New York, 1999, pp. 145–46, colorpl. 5, states that materials used in this painting include hardened paint skins.
Rosalind E. Krauss. "The Crisis of the Easel Picture." Jackson Pollock: New Approaches. Ed. Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel. New York, 1999, p. 170, figs. 2–3 (intermediate states), colorpl. 5, states that in this painting "horizontality had become the medium through which he [Pollock] could experience the unconscious as an attack on form".
Jeremy Lewison. "Jackson Pollock and the Americanization of Europe." Jackson Pollock: New Approaches. Ed. Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel. New York, 1999, p. 217, colorpl. 5.
Justin Spring. "Jackson Pollock, Superstar." New England Review 20 (Winter 1999), p. 49.
Hilton Kramer. "Jackson Pollock & the New York School, II." New Criterion 17 (February 1999).
"1950s." Tate no. 17 (Spring 1999), p. 37, calls it "Autumn Rhythm: Number 30, 1950".
Tim Marlow. "Lights, Camera, Action Painting." Tate 17 (Spring 1999), ill. p. 29 (Namuth photograph), calls it "Autumn Rhythm: Number 30".
Stella Paul. Twentieth-Century Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Resource for Educators. New York, 1999, pp. 91–93, ill. and ill. p. 90 (color).
Richard Martin. "New Look and Newer Look: The Communtation of Jackson Pollock by Cecil Beaton and Mike Bidlo." Such Desperate Joy: Imagining Jackson Pollock. Ed. Helen Harrison. New York, 2000, p. 345, comments that the "lacy lines" of the paintings in Beaton's fashion shoot [ Ref. Vogue 1951] animated the flow of the dresses modeled, adding that the setting for these photographs were chosen independently from art history.
Ronnie Landfield. "The Whitney Museum Ends the American Century." Linea 4 (Winter 2000), p. 14.
Annie Cohen–Solal. Painting American: The Rise of American Artists, Paris 1867–New York 1948. New York, 2001, pp. 339–40, ill. (Namuth studio photo).
Robin Cembalest. "Flashback: 1951. Who Was Jack the Dripper? The Photos That Launched a Thousand Theories." Art News 101 (June 2002), p. 136, calls it "Autumn Rhythm: Number 30, 1950".
Ann Temkin inBarnett Newman. Ed. Ann Temkin. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 2002, p. 41, fig. 18 (installation photo), calls it "Number 30 (Autumn Rhythm)".
Ellen G. Landau inPollock's America: Jackson Pollock in Venice. The "Irascibles" and the New York School. Exh. cat., Museo Correr. Milan, 2002, pp. 73, 82.
Erika Doss. Twentieth–Century American Art. Oxford, 2002, p. 119, fig. 60 (color).
Richard P. Taylor, Adam P. Micolich, and David Jonas. "The Construction of Jackson Pollock's Fractal Drip Paintings." Leonardo 35, no. 2 (2002), p. 205.
Kirk Varnedoe inPollock's America: Jackson Pollock in Venice. The "Irascibles" and the New York School. Exh. cat., Museo Correr. Milan, 2002, pp. 94–95, 103.
William S. Lieberman inPollock's America: Jackson Pollock in Venice. The "Irascibles" and the New York School. Exh. cat., Museo Correr. Milan, 2002, pp. 114, 121 n. 16.
Jordan Kantor inJackson Pollock's Blue Poles. Ed. Anthony White. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Australia. Canberra, 2002, pp. 42, 52 n. 2.
Anthony White inJackson Pollock's Blue Poles. Ed. Anthony White. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Australia. Canberra, 2002, p. 25, ill. (Namuth studio photo and overall, color).
Terry Smith inJackson Pollock's Blue Poles. Ed. Anthony White. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Australia. Canberra, 2002, p. 56.
Martin Gayford. "Being in a Field." Modern Painters 15 (Autumn 2002), p. 62, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Richard Taylor. "Fractal Expressionism–Where Art Meets Science." Art and Complexity. Ed. John Casti and Anders Karlqvist. Amsterdam, 2003, pp. 135, 137, cites this painting as an example of how fractals emerge in Pollock's drip paintings, asserting that Pollock instinctually graviated towards fractal patterns because of a "fundamental appreciation arising from humanity's exposure to Nature's fractal patterns".
Leonhard Emmerling. Jackson Pollock, 1912–1956. Cologne, 2003, pp. 73, 91, ill. pp. 65 (Namuth studio photo), 78–79 (color), argues that Pollock was conscious of the edges of this painting when it was made; disparages its use in the background of Beaton's photographs [Ref. Vogue 1951].
Irving Sandler. A Sweeper–Up After Artists: A Memoir. New York, 2003, pp. 93, 228, 245, 299.
Omri Moses. "Jackson Pollock's Address to the Nonhuman." Oxford Art Journal 27, no. 1 (2004), pp. 20–22, fig. 16, states that Pollock's large scale paintings, like this one, "no longer embody action...but include action as one of their effects" and thereby address the "nonhuman" aspects of existence such as endlessness.
Marcia Brennan. Modernism's Masculine Subjects: Matisse, the New York School, and Post–Painterly Abstraction. Cambridge, Mass., 2004, pp. 89–91, 105, fig. 3.5, colorpl. 4, calls it "Autumn Rhythm"; claims that the presence of Pollock's wife, Lee Krasner, in his studio and Namuth's photographs served to illustrate and emphasize his heterosexuality; asserts that in Ref. Vogue 1951 "when the feminine no longer played a supporting role in facilitating masculine creative production, but instead became the privileged center of the representation, the idealized reading of the drip paintings as metaphorical masculine bodies itself became compromised".
Jed Perl. New Art City. New York, 2005, pp. 191, 250, argues that by the time this work was created, Pollock's drip technique had become repetitive; compares its composition to Monet's "orchestrating a grand whole" in his large "Water Lilies" canvases.
Stefan Neuner inWillem de Kooning. Ed. Ingried Brugger and Florian Steininger. Exh. cat., Kunstforum Wien. Vienna, 2005, p. 25, fig. 2 (color).
Florian Steininger inWillem de Kooning. Ed. Ingried Brugger and Florian Steininger. Exh. cat., Kunstforum Wien. Vienna, 2005, pp. 46, 57, 122, fig. 3 (color).
Michael FitzGerald. Picasso and American Art. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 2006, pp. 205, 226.
Randy Kennedy. "Computer Analysis Suggests Paintings Are Not Pollocks." New York Times (February 9, 2006), p. E1, states that a computer analysis of fractal geometry by physicist Richard P. Taylor was compared to a cache of newly—found "Pollock" works to help determine if they were real.
David Anfam inAbstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow, Lisa Mintz Messinger, and Nan Rosenthal. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, p. 165.
Pepe Karmel inAbstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow, Lisa Mintz Messinger, and Nan Rosenthal. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 99–102, fig. 26 (color).
Claude Cernuschi and Ellen G. Landau inPollock Matters. Exh. cat., McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College. Chicago, 2007, p. 6.
Ellen G. Landau inPollock Matters. Exh. cat., McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College. 2007, p. 39.
Jonathan D. Katz inPollock Matters. Exh. cat., McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College. Chicago, 2007, p. 59.
Claude Cernuschi and Andrzej Herczynski inPollock Matters. Exh. cat., McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College. Chicago, 2007, p. 73, ill. p. 74 (installation photo, Exh. New York 1950).
Claude Cernuschi, Andrzej Herczynski, and David Martin inPollock Matters. Exh. cat., McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College. Chicago, 2007, pp. 99, 101.
Roberta Smith. "A Collector's Keen Eye for Modernists." New York Times (September 21, 2007), p. E36, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Carroll Janis. "Pollock's Breakthrough: Psychohistory and Style Origins." Sources: Notes in the History of Art 27 (Winter/Spring 2008), p. 72.
Francis Halsall. "Chaos, Fractals, and the Pedagogical Challenge of Jackson Pollock's 'All–Over' Paintings." Journal of Aesthetic Education 42 (Winter 2008), pp. 5–8, 10–11.
David Anfam. Abstract Expressionism: A World Elsewhere. Exh. cat., Haunch of Venison. New York, 2008, pp. 12, 14.
Änne Söll. "Pollock in 'Vogue': American Fashion and Avant–garde Art in Cecil Beaton's 1951 Photographs." Fashion Theory 13, no. 1 (2009), pp. 37–38, observes that the Vogue photograph featuring this work is the only one where the painting's drips are in sharp focus.
Gail Levin. Lee Krasner: A Biography. New York, 2011, pp. 267, 317, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
"Opportunity on Madison." New York Times (July 31, 2011), pp. AR1, AR20, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 2012, pp. 422–23, ill. (color).
Stephen Polcari inMen of Fire: José Clemente Orozco and Jackson Pollock. Exh. cat., Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. Hanover, N. H., 2012, p. 16, fig. 40 (color).
Evelyn Toynton. Jackson Pollock. New Haven, 2012, pp. 70, 106, ill. pp. 72–73.
Alexandra Davis Weiss. "The Artist–As–Celebrity: Picturing Artistic Fame in 'Vanity Fair', 'Vogue', and 'Harper's Bazaar' Magazines, 1921–1951." PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2012, pp. 126–29, 132–33, fig. 3.24 (color, Beaton photos), argues that the Vogue 1951 photographs emphasize this paintings's monumentality, particularly since it occupies virtually the entire image; considers it visually interconnected with the modeled evening gown.
Alicia G. Longwell in Klaus Ottmann and Dorothy Kosinski. Angels, Demons, and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet. Exh. cat., Phillips Collection. New Haven, 2013, pp. 30, 35, 40, 44 n. 21.
John J. Curley. A Conspiracy of Images: Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, and the Art of the Cold War. New Haven, 2013, pp. 11–15, 22, figs. 6, 8 (color and detail), calls it "Autumn Rhythm" in text and ""Autumn Rhythm: November 30, 1950" in caption.
Sergio Risaliti inJackson Pollock: The Figure of the Fury. Ed. Sergio Risaliti with Francesca Campana Comparini. Exh. cat., Palazzo Vecchio. Florence, 2014, ill. p. 45.
Tetsuya Oshima inJackson Pollock: The Figure of the Fury. Ed. Sergio Risaliti with Francesca Campana Comparini. Exh. cat., Palazzo Vecchio. Florence, 2014, p. 62, ill. p. 64 (installation photo), suggests that this painting and "One: Number 31, 1950" (MoMA, New York) were made to create a mural-like quality for Exh. New York 1950.
Stephanie Buhmann inJackson Pollock: The Sound of the Fury. Ed. Sergio Risaliti Francesca Campana Comparini. Exh. cat., Palazzo Vecchio. Florence, 2014, p. 74, ill. pp. 148–49 (color).
Maria Grazia Messina inJackson Pollock: The Figure of the Fury. Ed. Sergio Risaliti with Francesca Campana Comparini. Exh. cat., Palazzo Vecchio. Florence, 2014, pp. 98–99.
Robert S. Mattison. Why Nature? Hofmann, Mitchell, Pousette–Dart, Stamos. Exh. cat., Hollis Taggart Galleries. New York, 2014, p. 13, fig. 6 (color).
Helen A. Harrison. Jackson Pollock. London, 2014, pp. 87, 108, figs. 64–65 (studio photos), 72 (color), calls it "Autumn Rhythm: Number 30, 1950".
Annie Cohen–Solal. Mark Rothko: Toward the Light in the Chapel. 2nd ed. [1st ed., French, 2013]. New Haven, 2015, p. 150, erroneously locates it in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Gavin Delahunty inJackson Pollock: Blind Spots. Ed. Gavin Delahunty. Exh. cat., Tate Liverpool. London, 2015, pp. 15, 18, ill. (installation photo pf Exh. New York 1950), calls it "Autumn Rhythm: Number 30, 1950".
Jo Applin inJackson Pollock: Blind Spots. Ed. Gavin Delahunty. Exh. cat., Tate Liverpool. London, 2015, p. 90, calls it "Autumn Rhythm: Number 30, 1950".
Bernard Jacobson. Robert Motherwell: The Making of an American Giant. [London], 2015, pp. 23, 80, calls it "Autumn Rhythm".
Calvin Tomkins. "Onward and Upward with the Arts: The Met and the Now." New Yorker (January 25, 2016), p. 33.
Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, p. 529, ill. (color), colorpl. 463.
Dieter Roelstraete inKerry James Marshall: Mastry. Ed. Helen Molesworth. Exh. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Chicago, 2016, p. 52, fig. 20 (color).
Robert Longo. "Jackson Pollock's 'Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)'." The Artist Project: What Artists See When They Look at Art. Ed. Chris Noey. New York, 2017, pp. 138–39, ill. (color, overall and detail).
Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander. "Unaccountable Modernisms: The Black Arts of Post-Civil Rights Alabama." PhD diss., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2018, pp. 159, 166.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 2019, p. 423, ill. pp. 422–23 (color).
Max Hollein. Modern and Contemporary Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2019, pp. 7–8, ill. pp. 96–97.
Beatriz Cordero inThe Irascibles: Painters Against the Museum, New York, 1950. Ed. Bradford R. Collins et al. Exh. cat., Fundación Juan March. Madrid, 2020, pp. 83, 88, fig. 5 (color).
Bradford R. Collins et al., ed. The Irascibles: Painters Against the Museum, New York, 1950. Exh. cat., Fundación Juan March. Madrid, 2020, ill. p. 241, no. D27 (catalogue for Exh. New York 1952).
Kelly Baum and Randall Griffey inAlice Neel: People Come First. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2021, p. 21, fig. 11 (color).
MetLiveArts Intern Karmen Wolf explores Morton Feldman's mammoth String Quartet No. 2, which the Calder Quartet will perform this fall at The Met Cloisters.
#MetKids Reporters Anelisa, Brycen, and Naheem share their field notes from a recent class trip to The Met and tips for other #MetKids looking to visit.
When you visit the Met this summer, you will likely come across one of our twenty-two lilac-badged Summer College Interns—assisting visitors at one of the Information Desks (sometimes in a language other than English), lugging monographs out of Watson Library, or taking a break in the shade of Big Bambú. Or you may see us—and even join us—as we lead guided tours of the permanent collection.
Jackson Pollock (American, Cody, Wyoming 1912–1956 East Hampton, New York)
ca. 1947
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We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's engagement with art from 1890 to today includes the acquisition and exhibition of works in a range of media, spanning movements in modernism to contemporary practices from across the globe.
