Virtually unobtainable Osborne Trust Company check, 6.25 x 2.75, filled out in another hand and signed by Pollock, “Jackson Pollock,” payable to Director of Internal Revenue for $41, March 16, 1953. Encapsulated in a plastic PSA/DNA authentication holder. In fine condition, with staple holes to left side, trivial spreading to a few letters of the signature, and expected bank stamps and cancellation holes (affecting a single letter of the first name of the signature). Shortly after abandoning his influential ‘drip and splash’ style of painting, Pollock entered his last great phase of productivity with the ‘black pourings.’ Created between 1951 and 1953, the colorless works presented stark and abstract depictions of Pollock’s struggles with depression and alcoholism; their bleakness ultimately earned mixed fanfare and poor gallery sales. With his profits gravely low, Pollock relented to color and created a handful of new paintings before giving up the medium and turning to sculpture in the years prior to his death. In consideration of dealer commissions and his own work and living costs, a financially unstable Pollock received meager income tax bills, with this check to the IRS indicative of such problems. Signed during the artist’s noted downward spiral of the 1950s, this rare check is the first Pollock item we have ever offered.
