Debunking Fractals in the Drip Paintings of Jackson Pollock

Physics Seminar, Katherine Brown, Assistant Professor of Physics, Hamilton College

In the late 1990s, a group of physicists analyzed some of the most famous drip paintings by the celebrated Abstract Expressionist painter Jackson Pollock. Assuming Pollock underwent a particular type of chaotic motion, they found that every layer of every painting they analyzed possessed the same fractal characteristics. From this they conjectured that Pollock was able to create a unique frac- tal ‘signature’ in his work, and that fractal analysis could therefore be used as an authentication tool in paintings of disputed origin. It turns out that this hypothesis of ‘Fractal Expressionism’ is flawed in several important ways. I will present an account of the techniques used in fractal analysis and the pitfalls which ensue from applying them to Pollock’s drip paintings. I will also discuss several new findings from the realm of fractal mathematics which were motivated by this work.