POLLOCK FRACTAL THESIS MAY BE FLAWED

In an article published this week in the prestigious science journal Nature, two physicists—Katherine Jones-Smith and Harsh Mathur—contend that a method intended to identify complex geometric patterns in the seemingly chaotic drip paintings of Jackson Pollock is flawed and may be useless in the increasingly convoluted world of authenticating Pollock’s work, reports Randy Kennedy for the New York Times. In the article, the researchers conclude that the original analysis of Pollock paintings by Richard P. Taylor that suggested that many of the paintings contain natural fractals is flawed because it did not use a great enough range of box sizes to establish fractal characteristics reliably. According to the article, using only the range Taylor did, a childlike drawing could turn out, mathematically at least, the equal of a Pollock.