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Art & Antiques | March 2005
Pollock's Patterns
EUGENE, ORE.-A University of Oregon associate physics professor has discovered
that Jackson Pollock's abstract-patterned paintings have a highly scientific
meaning. Pollock painted in fractals, "a repetition of patterns at different
magnifications," explains Richard Taylor, who discovered the patterns through
a computer program. (Geometric fractals were introduced by Benoit B.
Mandelbrot, who coined the term in 1975 from the Latin fractus, which means
"broken," or "uneven.") "Pollock wouldn't have known that fractals were out
there, and he certainly wasn't a mathematician," Taylor continues. "He must
have tuned into some natural process to create these."
Pollock recreated a motion much like the fractal pattern generated when people
sway to catch their balance. Last spring, Taylor, who also has an appointment
in the arts and psychology departments, and his team invited 37 student and
professor volunteers to try to match Pollock's patterns-none succeeded. Taylor
sees his discovery as an aid to authenticating works of art. "The connoisseur's
point of view is hard to defend in a court of law. However, my analysis is
completely objective. This isn't meant to replace the connoisseur," he notes.
Rather, he says his computer program will assist in corroborating the
connoisseur's beliefs with science. For more information, visit
http://materialscience.uoregon.edu/taylor/taylor.html.
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