ABSTRACT
Art historians have studied the intricate, looping patterns in Pollock’s work ever since, but, on occasion, his paintings have also attracted attention from scientists. The slightest irregularity at the interface of the two fluids will cause gravity to pull the denser fluid into the less dense one. Physical analysis illuminates the ways that both artists used a natural effect—fluids falling under gravity—to produce their works. However, it does not explain everything, since the artists also made creative choices. Siqueiros declared, correctly, that his patterns were made by the paint itself, and so accepted the resulting unpredictability. Pollock, on the other hand, based his approach on apparently haphazard but actually well-controlled streams of paint falling through air.
