Which artist's painting 'Number 5, 1948' is one of the most expensive?

Which artist’s painting “Number 5, 1948” is one of the most expensive? Jackson Pollock painted it.

Pollock created Number 5, 1948 during the period when he developed his famous drip-painting technique. Rather than applying paint only with a brush to an upright canvas, he worked with the support laid on the floor, dripping, pouring, and splattering paint to build a dense web of lines and color.

The work is made with synthetic resin paint on fiberboard and measures about 8 by 4 feet. Its brown, yellow, white, and gray-brown layers exemplify the physical, process-oriented approach associated with Abstract Expressionism’s action painting.

The painting was sold in 1949 for $1,500 and changed hands privately over the following decades. In 2006, it was reportedly sold for $140 million, a record-setting figure at the time. Because private-sale prices can be difficult to verify, “one of the most expensive” is safer than claiming it remains the single record-holder. It is also often called No. 5, 1948 rather than Number 5, 1948.