ARTICLE IN PRESS

Physica A 387 (2008) 281–295

www.elsevier.com/locate/physa

1=f -Noise structures in Pollocks’s drip paintings$

Jose Alvarez-Ramirez, Carlos Ibarra-Valdez,
Eduardo Rodriguez, Leonardo Dagdug
Division de Ciencias Basicas e Ingenieria, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, Apartado Postal 55-534,
Mexico D.F. 09340, Mexico
Received 3 May 2007; received in revised form 14 August 2007
Available online 12 September 2007

Abstract

The fractality and scaling properties of luminance patterns in Pollock’s drip paintings, are studied in this paper. The
painting is represented as a matrix array where each entry represents the luminance at the corresponding canva position.
Detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) is used to characterize fractality, and the results show that the whole luminance
pattern is indeed fractal. Interestingly, the fractality is associated to 1=f -noise structures, which can be inducing the
aesthetic properties of the artistic object. In fact, for spatial scales below 30 cm, Pollock’s drip painting are organized as
1=f -noise structures, which presumably are attuned for pleasant (i.e., aesthetic) perception.
r 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Keywords: Visual arts; Pollock; Scaling analysis; Fractality

1. Introduction

In the recent decades, some steps towards systematic studies based on structures of visual and musical arts
have been taken. The underlying task of such attempts is to reveal structures in art objects (e.g., paintings,
music scores, etc.) that yield aesthetic perception. It has been recognized that complexity is one distinctive
feature of art generation and perception [1]. In this way, systematic studies of art complexity should rely on
modern methodologies from physics and mathematics. In principle, if one is able to describe the art object in
terms of known mathematical representations, like time series and matrices, existing analysis methods can
provide some useful information on the way art is generated and on the process of art perception. The idea is
that methods borrowed from mathematics and physics may help to develop comprehensive models of the
artistic content.
As concerning music, some advances have been accomplished. Given that music scores and records can be
considered as time sequences, music has been subjected to considerable studies from a complexity viewpoint.
On the basis of the amplitude (loudness) of the audio signals, Voss and Clarke [2,3] analyzed the power
spectrum of music and found a critical frequency tc such that the spectrum Sðf Þ was white, i.e., independent of

$
This work was partially supported by Fundacion Simona Lagata.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +52 55 58044650; fax: +52 55 58044900.
E-mail address: jjar@xanum.uam.mx (J. Alvarez-Ramirez).

0378-4371/$ - see front matter r 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.

doi:10.1016/j.physa.2007.08.047
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frequency, for f 51=2ptc , and strongly correlated with Sðf Þ1=f 2 for f b1=2ptc . Also, the spectrum of music
exhibited a 1=f dependence between 1 and 10 Hz. Klimontovich and Boon [4] showed that a large class of
musical selections exhibits a spectral density of audio power fluctuations characterized by a low-frequency
behavior typical of 1=f noise. It has been argued that music containing 1=f components is the most pleasing to
the human ear since it does not have the lack of predictability and randomness of ‘‘white noise’’ nor the
boringness and predictability of ‘‘brown noise’’ (derived from Brownian motion). These findings motivated
the application of methods from fractal theory for study pitch variations [5], showing that music displays
regularities in scaling properties and long-range correlations. An attempt to find a fractal structure for music
was pursued by Hsü and Hsü [6,7], who considered a melody as a succession of music intervals instead of a
succession of music notes. In this way, they concluded that the Bach’s music has a fractal structure. Bigerelle
and Iost [8] suggested that music could be classified by their fractal dimensions. Jennings et al. [9] analyzed
fluctuations in audio signals obtained from selected genres of music. They found quantitative differences in the
correlation properties of art music, popular music, and dance music. In particular, art music (e.g., Western
European Classical tradition, Hindustani and Gamelean music) presented a scaling behavior with scaling
exponent around 1=f noise.
Application of methods from complexity studies for characterization of structures in visual arts has been
considered only recently, focusing mainly on non-figurative (i.e., abstract) painting styles. Almost all work has
focused on Jackson Pollock, an American abstract painter that had a tremendous impact in contemporary art.
Taylor et al. [10–13] studied black-pigment (blobs) and multiple color patterns in Pollock’s drip paintings. By
using box-counting methods, they showed that blob patterns can be characterized as fractal objects similar to
those formed in nature by trees, clouds and coastlines. An interesting conclusion is that such blobs structures
almost uniformly possess a fractal dimension of about 1.7. It has been suggested that fractal properties of physical
patterns formed by specific colors can be used as an authentication tool for artists and their paintings [12,13]. The
general fractal structure of Pollock’s drip paintings was confirmed by Mureika et al. [14], who extended the
analysis to other artists of the abstract expressionist school (Quebec-based group Les Automatistes). Mureika
et al. [15] have concluded that if one looks at large size scales, the fractal dimension is not sufficient to distinguish
between different artists. This is consistent with the findings of Taylor et al. [16] who used fractal dimensions at
both large and small scales to successfully distinguish between over 50 different artists.
Regarding the reported results on the fractality of visual arts, two concerns can be described as follows:

(a) Analysis of fractality of paintings has concentrated on color blobs and luminance edges, which are only a
part of the whole painting. By considering only some color patterns and their interactions, one obtains a
structure that is essentially the fractal extension of a one-dimensional geometry. Presumably the color
combination in painting art, although embedded into a two-dimensional geometric manifold, should project
a sort of three-dimensional (i.e., volume) effect. In turn, this effect is lost if one reduces the fractality analysis
to color blobs and luminance contours patterns. In fact, as Loftus [17] has pointed out, ‘‘...the harmonious
resolution of a three dimensional spatial experience on a two dimensional surface is the aim of the plastic
artist. This space must be felt by the artist and conveyed to the observer’’. Studies on the whole color or
luminance patterns should provide complementary information to that obtained from edge analysis.
(b) The results have shown that many abstract paintings have fractal structure. Fractal dimension and
multifractal spectra have been proposed as measures of such aesthetic structures. Pollock’s drip paintings
display fractal dimension about 1.7, which is suspected to have a specific aesthetic quality. Studies of both
music and painting behavior have shown that music also possesses aesthetic fractal structures. Music
studies have demonstrated that such a pleasant fractality is associated to 1=f -noise components in audio
and scores. In a similar way, many studies of paintings report perceptual and physiological experiments on
fractal aesthetics. For instance, Sprott [18] describes a simple method for generating an endless succession
of beautiful fractal patterns by iterating simple maps and ordinary differential equations with coefficients
chosen automatically by the computer. Spehar et al. [19] show that humans display a consistent aesthetic
preference across fractal images, regardless of whether these images are generated by natures processes, by
mathematics, or by the human hand. Hagerhall et al. [20] explore the suggestion that fractal characteristics
may play a role in aesthetic experiences by providing possible empirical evidence for connections between
landscape preference and fractal properties.
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This work focuses on these issues; namely, we consider fractality of whole painting patterns and provide
some features of how the fractal patterns are organized. To this end, we shall consider two-dimensional
luminance patterns obtained by a projection of the colored painting image into a gray scale image. Contrary to
Mureika et al. [15] that considered only luminance contours, we consider the whole luminance pattern
represented as a matrix array where each entry corresponds to the luminance at each image pixel. In this way,
the matrix array corresponds to a (discrete) surface where luminance is the elevation coordinate. Similar to the
elevation profile of a topographic sierra, the fractality of the painting should correspond to the texture
(roughness) of the surface, leading to a sort of three-dimensional effect. The fractal characterization
of the painting surface is carried with detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA), a technique borrowed from
statistical physics methods [21], that has been successfully applied to evaluate fractality and scaling
characteristics of data from a wide range of sources (physiological signals, financial data, etc.). Our results
corroborate the (multi) fractality of the Pollock’s drip paintings with almost constant fractal dimension, and
provide another interesting information on the way the fractal structure is organized. Of particular interest is
the result showing that, as in musical art, paintings contain 1=f -noise structures, which can be very likely
inducing the aesthetic properties of the artistic object. In fact, for spatial scales below 30 cm, Pollock’s drip
painting are organized as 1=f -noise objects, which, at least for music [22], presumably are attuned for pleasant
perception.

2. Detrended fluctuation analysis

The detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) is a widely used method to study long-term correlations in
sequences [21]. The DFA method has been successfully applied to evaluate fractality and scaling
characteristics of data from a wide range of sources, including DNA sequences [23], heart rate dynamics
[24], neuron spiking [25], long-time weather records [26], and financial time-series [27], atomic vibrations in
protein backbones [28], neutronic power from a nuclear reactor [29], seismic fluctuations [30], among others.
The DFA method involves the following steps [21]:
PN
1. Consider a given sequence yi , i ¼ 1; . . . ; N. Compute the sequence mean y ¼ N1 j¼1 yj . An integrated
sequence xi , i ¼ 1; . . . ; N, is then obtained as follows:
X
i
xi ¼ ½yj  y; i ¼ 1; . . . ; N.
j¼1

2. Divide the integrated sequence xi into subsequences of equal size s. A polynomial function of degree m,
denoted by xpol;i ðsÞ, is used to approximate the integrated sequence in each segment. The interpolating curve
xpol;i ðsÞ represents the local trend in each segment.
3. The trend of the integrated sequence is removed by computing the fluctuation sequence as
zi ðsÞ ¼ xi  xpol;i ðsÞ; i ¼ 1; . . . ; N.
A linear fit (i.e., m ¼ 1) is normally used.
4. The fluctuation function F ðs; qÞ is computed as the root-mean q-norm value of the sequence zi ðsÞ:
!1=q
1X N
F ðs; qÞ ¼ zi ðsÞq .
N j¼1

5. Repeat the above procedure for a broad range of segment lengths s. According to the recommendations
made by Peng et al. [21], the following range smin ’ 5 and smax ’ N=4 should be selected.

When the signal follows a scaling law, a power-law behavior for the fluctuation function F ðs; qÞ is observed:
F ðs; qÞsa1;q ,
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where a1;q is called the (one-dimensional) scaling exponent, a self-affinity parameter representing the long-
range power-law correlation properties of the signal. In this way, the scaling exponent a1;q is computed as the
slope of the plot F ¼ flogðsÞ versus logðF ðs; qÞÞg.

2.1. DFA for higher dimensions

A DFA algorithm for higher dimensions was recently proposed by Guo and Zheng [31] as a direct extension
of the one-dimensional DFA algorithm described above. Being a direct generalization, the higher-dimensional
DFA have similar steps as the one-dimensional DFA. Since we are interested in the analysis of images
obtained from paintings, we shall focus on the two-dimensional case. The two-dimensional DFA consists of
the following steps.

1. Consider a self-similar surface, which is represented by a two-dimensional array (i.e., matrix) yi;j ,
i ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; N r , and j ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; N c , where N
Pr andPNN c denote the number of rows and columns,
respectively. Compute the array mean y ¼ N r1N c N r
i¼1
c
j¼1 yi;j . An integrated array xi;j , i ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; N r , and
j ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; N c , is obtained as follows:
i X
X j
xi;j ¼ ½yk;l  y.
k¼1 l¼1

2. Divide the integrated array xi;j into square segments of size s  s. A bivariate polynomial function, denoted
by xpol;i;j ðsÞ, is used to approximate the integrated array in each segment. The interpolating curve xpol;i;j ðsÞ
represents the local trend in each segment. In this work, we shall adopt a linear function of the form
xpol;i;j ðsÞ ¼ ai þ bj þ c.
3. The trend of the integrated array is removed by computing the fluctuation array as
zi;j ðsÞ ¼ xi;j  xpol;i;j ðsÞ; i ¼ 1; . . . ; N r and j ¼ 1; . . . ; N c .

4. The fluctuation function F ðs; qÞ is computed as the root-mean q-norm value of the sequence zi ðsÞ:
!1=q
1 X Nr XNc
q
F ðs; qÞ ¼ zi;j ðsÞ .
N r N c i¼1 j¼1

5. Repeat the above procedure for a broad range of square segment sizes s  s. Similar to the
recommendations made by Peng et al. [21] for one-dimensional DFA, the following range smin ’ 5 and
smax ’ minfN r ; N c g=4 should be selected.

If the array meets a scaling law, a power-law behavior for the fluctuation function F ðs; qÞ is observed:
F ðs; qÞsa2;q ,
where a2;q is called the (two-dimensional) scaling exponent, a self-affinity parameter representing the long-
range power-law correlation (e.g., texture) properties of the surface. In this way, the scaling exponent a2;q is
computed as the slope of the plot F ¼ flogðsÞ versus logðF ðs; qÞÞg.

2.2. Comments

Regarding the possible values of the scaling exponent, the following remarks are important:

(a) In the case of having only short-range correlations (or not correlations at all) the one-dimensional
detrended walk profile displays properties of a standard random walk (e.g., white noise) with a1;q ¼ 0:5.
On the other hand, if a1;q o0:5 the correlations in the signal are anti-persistent (i.e., an increment is very
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likely to be followed by a decrement, and vice versa), and if a1;q 40:5 the correlations in the signal are
persistent (i.e., an increment is very likely to be followed by an increment, and vice versa). It is important
to note that persistent stochastic processes have little noise whereas anti-persistent processes show
presence of high-frequency noise [32].
(b) The one-dimensional scaling exponent values a1;q ¼ 1:0 and a1;q ¼ 1:5 correspond to 1=f -noise and
Brownian motion, respectively. A value a1;q 41:5 corresponds to long-range correlations that are not
necessarily related to stochastic processes. Indeed, a1;q 41:5 can be reflecting deterministic behavior.
(c) The two-dimensional scaling exponent a2;q can be seen as a measure of the surface texture (i.e., roughness),
which is related to correlation properties. The value a2;q ¼ 0:5 corresponds to non-correlated surfaces. On
the other hand, as in the one-dimensional case, a2;q o0:5 and a2;q 40:5 correspond, respectively, to anti-
persistent and persistent correlations of changes on the surface. As a2;q increases from 0:5, one has a
smoother surface. On the other hand, a2;q  0:0 corresponds to a fully anti-persistent array (i.e., arrays
with oscillating gradients at the minimum scale).
(d) The relation between the fractal dimension Dn;q , n ¼ 1; 2, and the scaling exponent an;q can be expressed
asDn;q ¼ Dt  an;q , where Dt is the topological dimension (Dt ¼ 1 for sequences and Dt ¼ 2 for matrix
arrays). So, by finding the scaling exponent, one can estimate the fractal dimension of the stochastic
structure.
(e) The role of the norm exponent q is to magnify large fluctuations. In this form, it recasts the clustering
(aggregates) structure of sequences and arrays. Increasing values of q40 emphasize the stronger local
clustering nature of the pattern. The graph of the scaling exponent an;q as a function of the norm exponent
q is called multifractal spectra. If the scaling exponent does not present significant changes with the norm
exponent q, the sequence yi , i ¼ 1; . . . ; N, is monofractal. Conversely, if the scaling exponent changes with
q, sequences and arrays are said to be is multifractal. Multifractals may be regarded as an intricate weave
of many fractals, all of which being characterized by different scaling exponents. Certain key values of Dn;q
are useful in characterizing the physical clustering characteristics of the set [30]. For instance, the value
Dn;q ! 1 is a measure of the scaling behavior for the most dense clustering regions of the multifractal.

2.3. 1=f -Noise and artistic creativity

The well-known 1=f or pink noise distribution is widely found in diverse areas such as physics [33], natural
images [34], and human cognition [35]. One famous example examining 1=f noise in the arts is [2,3]. In the
music examples analyzed, they show that the differences in successive pitches in notes (pitch gradients) exhibit
1=f distributions. Furthermore, stochastically generated music based on 1=f -noise generators is more
pleasing, and therefore has more aesthetic content, than that generated by pure random or white noise
generators [22]. Consider, for instance, the extremes of white noise and brown noise. White noise is a type of
noise that is produced by combining with equal weight all different frequencies of the spectrum. White noise is
thus characterized by a constant frequency spectrum 1=f 0 and is too random to be perceived as music; it is
extremely irritating to most human ears. Some compositions by György Ligeti or John Cage may serve as
examples, where a great deal of randomness is intentionally introduced as a matter of style that many people
find irritating and incomprehensible. At the other extreme, we have brown noise which takes its name from
Brownian motion, the apparently random bouncing of molecules exhibiting step-wise random walk behavior
with a frequency spectrum 1=f 2 . Brown noise appears monotonous and boring. At the mid-point between
these extremes of noise, one finds art music, which can be characterized by a frequency spectrum of about 1=f
[2]. These results suggest that 1=f -noise (perhaps firing noise in nerve membranes?) may have an essential role
in the creative process. While the role of 1=f -noise in music composition has been demonstrated, its role in
visual arts (e.g., painting) is still an open issue. In Section 4, we shall show that Pollock’s drip paintings are
fractal objects constructed on the basis of 1=f -noise color structures.

3. Data

By the mid 1940s Pollock was painting in a completely abstract manner, and the ‘drip and splash’ style for
which he is best known emerged with some abruptness about 1947. Instead of using the traditional easel he
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affixed his canvas to the floor or the wall and poured and dripped his paint from a can; instead of using
brushes he manipulated it with ‘sticks, trowels or knives’ (to use his own words), sometimes obtaining a heavy
impasto by an admixture of ‘sand, broken glass or other foreign matter’. Although Pollock produced about 30
‘drip and splash’ works, we will consider four representative paintings that should reflect the main
characteristics of the Pollock’s non-figurative visual art. Since Pollock’s most famous paintings were during
the ‘‘drip period’’ between 1947 and 1950, we have chosen one painting previous to this period (Eyes in the
Heat–1946), and other three ones of the period that show a well-developed drip technique. The images were
borrowed from publicly available Internet sites. In the following, a brief description of painting dimensions
and aesthetic description taken from the corresponding Internet site, are provided:

 Eyes in the Heat (1946): Oil (and enamel?) on canvas, 137:2  109:2 cm. Peggy Guggenheim Collection. The
image dimensions are 1069  829 pixels (www.guggenheimcollection.org), corresponding to a relationship
0.1283 cm/pixel (see Fig. 1). Eyes in the Heat heralds the poured paintings Jackson Pollock initiated in the
winter of 1946–1947. It is part of Sounds in the Grass, a series of seven canvases that also includes Croaking
Movement in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Pollock had moved to a house on Long Island in 1945,
and early the next summer began using one of the bedrooms as a studio. Later in 1946 he arranged with
Peggy Guggenheim to have a show at her Art of This Century gallery, to open in January of 1947; in
preparation for this exhibition he worked with great intensity on Sounds in the Grass and the series
Accabonac Creek. Visible effects of the move from New York City to the more rural environment of East
Hampton were a lightening of palette and the introduction of themes alluding to nature. Although the light
and flora and fauna of Long Island are evoked in a general sense in Eyes in the Heat, particularized
figurative references are almost entirely submerged in the layers of impasto that build up the surface.
 Cathedral (1947): Enamel and aluminum paint on canvas, 181:66  88:9 cm. Dallas Museum of Art. The
image dimensions are 1324  641 pixels (www.beatmuseum.org/pollock) for 0.1372 cm/pixel. Pollock’s

Fig. 1. Eyes in the Heat (1946). Oil (and enamel?) on canvas, 137:2  109:2 cm. Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
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Cathedral dates from his first series of paintings of 1947–1950, in which the artist perfected this drip
technique that forever changed the way art was created and perceived. The term drip, though descriptive, is
somewhat misleading, as it implies that Pollock merely flung paint onto his canvases. In fact, his technique
was extremely controlled. Evidence of this can be seen in the deliberate placement and layering of paint that
covers the surface of Cathedral in an overall composition, a hallmark of abstract expressionist painting.
Likened to the facade of a Gothic cathedral by the poet and curator Frank O’Hara, Cathedrals tight yet
dynamic interlacings of black, white, and silver also suggest an energy made visible: here Pollock has
recorded in paint the actions that went into the works very making.
 Full Fathom of Five (1947): Oil on canvas with nails, tacks, buttons, coins, cigarettes, etc., 129  76:5 cm.
MoMA-NYC. The image dimensions are 1181  678 pixels (www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock)
corresponding to 0.1092 cm/pixel. Full Fathom Five is one of the earliest masterpieces of Pollock’s drip
technique. In Full Fathom Five the initial impression of a vibrant sea-green hue is relieved on inspection by
the variety of shades and inflections which combine to produce an idea of water and of depth. A strenuous
black calligraphy loops and curls round the volume of green; mottled and patchy areas of white interact
with these, while the green is ‘seasoned’ with amounts of other colors. Pollock has embedded nails, tacks,
buttons, keys, coins, a torn cigarette, matches, and paint-tube tops into the surface—witnesses of the
accidental nature of the ‘painting’ process and of the legitimacy of the trouser-pocket paraphernalia—as
three-dimensional textural agents to amplify the signifying potential of the image. These alien materials,
however, are subordinate to the overall design. They are, interestingly, almost invisible in normal
reproductions of the painting; suffocated by the overwhelming presence of paint their function is analogous
to the smears and touches of color, providing resistance and difference in the optical pattern.
 Lavender Mist: Number 1 (1950): Oil on canvas, oil, enamel, and aluminum on canvas, 221  300 cm.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. The image size is 749  1024 pixels (www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/
auth/pollock), which give 0.2950 cm/pixel (see Fig. 2). Lavender Mist is alive with colored scribble,
spattered lines moving this way and that, now thickening, now trailing off to a slender skein. The eye is kept
continually eager, not allowed to rest on any particular area. Pollock has put his hands into paint and
placed them at the top right—an instinctive gesture eerily reminiscent of cave painters who did the same.
The overall tone is a pale lavender, made airy and active.

3.1. Image representation as a matrix array

As discussed in the introduction, reported results on Pollock’s drip paintings focused on the fractality of
sparse structures (color blobs and luminance edges) embedded into the painting [10,12,15]. Such fractal
network-like structures were obtained either as the black pigment (blobs) or luminance contours patterns.

Fig. 2. Lavender Mist: Number 1 (1950). Oil on canvas, oil, enamel, and aluminum on canvas, 221  300 cm. National Gallery of Art,
Washington, DC.
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It has been argued that such structures are the main contribution to the painting fractality [15]. In turn,
box-counting methods were used to characterize, via fractal dimension, the whole painting. By discarding
many color patterns, one obtains a structure that is essentially the fractal extension of a one-dimensional
geometry. Presumably, colors combination in painting art, although embedded into a two-dimensional
geometry, should project a sort of three-dimensional effect, like that of a 2-sphere embedded in a 3-sphere.
This effect is lost if one reduces the painting analysis to rarefied structures, such as color blobs and luminance
contours patterns. In this work we shall consider the painting as a surface whose roughness, like in a
topographic sierra seen from above, produces a three-dimensional (spatial) effect in the observer. To do this,
the luminance field of the image was considered as the pattern to be studied. Luminance is a measure of the
luminous intensity per unit area. It describes the amount of light that passes through or is emitted from a
particular area. Luminance has a psychological effect and is an indicator of how bright a surface will appear.
A computer image is composed by a suitable combination of the basic red (R), green (G) and blue (B) colors.
The Matlabs instruction rgb2gray converts RGB images to grayscale by eliminating the hue and saturation
information while retaining the luminance. Subsequently, the gray image is represented as a matrix array with
values ranging from 0 to 256, the former being for black (no luminance) and the latter for white (full
luminance). The resulting luminance matrix array was used for fractal analysis by means of the DFA methods
described in Section 2.

4. Results

The two-dimensional DFA of the Pollock’s drip paintings revealed a scaling behavior for scales ranging
from about 0.25 cm to the dimensions of the canvas.. The results for Lavender Mist and q ¼ 2 are shown in
Fig. 3, where a crossover at about 18 cm is observed. At the crossover, the slope of the plot F ¼
flogðsÞ versus logðF ðs; qÞÞg is reduced, implying that for scales larger than the crossover the luminance
pattern is more random than the pattern for scales smaller than the crossover. The results, in terms of the
(two-dimensional) fractal dimension, are shown in Fig. 4. Although results are shown only for the four canvas
described in Section 3, similar results were obtained for another Pollock’s drip paintings, including Alchemy
(1947) and Autumn Rhythm (1950). All analyzed paintings presented a crossover around 10–25 cm,
representing different scaling behavior of two different mechanisms. The shallower slope can be taken as
representative of Pollock’s painting technique [15] composed by an overall (network) structure at high length

10
Crossover = 18 cm
Fluctuation Function, F (s,2)

1
10 100
Scale, s (cm)

Fig. 3. DFA results ðq ¼ 2Þ for Lavender Mist. Notice the different scaling behaviors separated by a crossover at about 18 cm scales.
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2.40 Eyes in the Heat (1946)

Full Fathom of Five (1947)
2.37 Cathedral (1947)
Lavender Mist: Number 1 (1950)
2.34

2D Fractal Dimension, D2
2.31

2.28

2.25

2.22

2.19

2.16

2.13

2.10

1 10 100
Scale, s (cm)

Fig. 4. Fractal dimension obtained with the two-dimensional DFA analysis. Notice that the complexity of the paintings is increased for
spatial scales larger than about 10–20 cm.

scales and a fine-grained refinement at lower length scales. This latter mechanism was generated by a ‘drip and
splash’ dynamics. In this way, the luminance pattern at high length scales is more random than the pattern at
small length scales. The fractional dimension for small scales (i.e., below the crossover) is almost constant
(about 2.1) for paintings after the Pollock’s 1946 period. Eyes in the Heat, a painting made at the beginning of
the Pollock’s drip period, presented the largest fractal dimension (about 2.2).
Mureika et al. [15] have used box-counting methods on luminance contours to show that Pollock’s
drip paintings are multifractal. In a similar way, we have used DFA to quantify multifractality of the
painting. The multifractal spectra in Fig. 5 shows that the fractal dimension for length scales below the
crossover changes with the norm exponent q, which implies that the paintings are multifractal objects with
different (nonlinear) internal organization of luminance clusters. This result obtained with DFA
corroborates the result obtained by Mureika et al. [15] with box-counting methods on blobs and luminance
contours. In this way, our result implies that multifractality is an intrinsic property of Pollock’s drip
paintings, and not a singular property of luminance contours patterns and color configurations.
It should be noticed that our analysis show that the fractal dimension increases with q. By recalling that
large values of q magnify large luminance changes, this result is the effect of a dominance of blobs and
contours over minor (filling up) objects. In some sense, the result in Fig. 5 back up the Mureika et al.’s
approach of characterizing the drip’s painting by considering low-dimensional structures embedded into the
painting.
It is interesting to observe that the multifractality of Pollock’s paintings were decreasing with time. In fact,
Fig. 5 shows that the fractal dimension present more abrupt changes for canvas in the early 1946 drip period,
and decreased to achieve an almost monofractal behavior in the late 1950 drip period. This demonstrates that
Pollock refined his technique and, by late 1950, achieved the desired aesthetic effect with less fractal elements.
In some sense, the late Pollock’s drip paintings were more balanced fractal objects. This can be observed in the
1946 painting Eyes in the Heat (see Fig. 1) which shows more coarse color patterns than the 1950 painting
Lavender Mist (see Fig. 2).
Summing up, the DFA of the images have shown the following: (i) fractality is an intrinsic structure of
Pollock’s drip painting and not an artifact of the fractal analysis technique. In fact, our results corroborate
previously reported results obtained with a different technique (box-counting) applied to blobs and luminance
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3.0
Eyesin the Heat (1946)
2.9 Cathedral (1947)
Full Fathom Five (1947)
Lavender Mist: Number 1 (1950)
2.8

2.7

Fractal Dimension, D2,2

2.6

2.5

2.4

2.3

2.2

2.1

2.0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
q

Fig. 5. Multifractal spectra showing that the multifractality of Pollock’s drip paintings decreased with time.

techniques. (ii) multifractality decreased chronologically, demonstrating the continuous evolution of Pollock’s
painting technique. In strict sense, the two-dimensional DFA of the paintings only back up, with a different
technique on the complete luminance pattern, previously known information on the Pollock’s drip technique.
In fact, Pollock’s drip paintings are authentic fractal objects whose structure evolved within the drip period
1946–1950. Recently, Jones-Smith and Mathur [36] have tailored patterns that are fractal with properties
similar to that of Pollock’s paintings. Of course, such tailored canvas are not artistic objects. This leads us to
suspect that, as argued by Jones-Smith and Mathur [36], fractal objects are very common in nature and daily
life, and stating that a pattern is fractal/multifractal is not enough to establish it as an aesthetic (i.e., artistic)
object. The question of perceptibility of fractal structures as aesthetic and pleasant has been addressed already
[37,38], where the question of whether or not humans are attuned to the perception of fractal-like optical was
considered. the authors suggested that there is a fractal-like signature in memory processes which can be
detected in the statistical variance of averaged repeated actions. Interestingly, for patterns made by
repeated drawing lines in the lengths or shapes, it was shown that the statistical variations in the lengths are
not purely random, but fractal ordered 1=f -noise. It can conjectured that the 1=f -noise found in the analysis
might be the cause of the fractal aesthetics. Evidences for this hypothesis have been found for art music [9].
However, to the best of our knowledge, the existence of 1=f -noise patterns in fractal Pollock’s paintings has
not been revealed yet. In the following we shall show that, indeed, 1=f -noise patterns are present in the
Pollock’s drip paintings.
A canvas, placed in a museum or gallery, is pleasant depending on the way the color, line and shape
structures are perceived by viewers. Human visual processing has evolved in such a way that the actual
physical world is not always what is perceived and encoded by the brain. When viewing an artwork, a viewer’s
visual system is stimulated by the details of the image. In this way, the perception of certain distinctive color
structures depends on the form data are visually extracted from the painting. Canvas, mainly those of large
dimensions, cannot be perceived as a whole, such that observers should focus on sections which are
subsequently assembled by means of complex neuropsychological process where memory plays an important
role [39]. For the Western culture is apparent that, as in natural languages, readings of aesthetic objects are
made along the preferential horizontal direction. Following this idea, in order to extract information on color
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patterns an observer reads the canvas along horizontal directions, from left to right or vice versa [40]. This
information conforms a sequence of stimulus that are subsequently processed by the brain which, in turn,
produces an aesthetic (pleasant) reaction. We have simulated the process of extracting patterns from a canvas
by carry out a random walk along the matrix array with preferential horizontal direction. When the random
walk arrives to the canvas boundary, the random walk is bounced back along the opposite horizontal
direction. To obtain significative statistics, and assuming homogeneous fractal structures, the random
walk sampling process is made many times to obtain one million samples. In principle, if a correlated
fractal pattern is hidden in the canvas, it should be recovered (at least partially) by means of the sampling
process. Fig. 6 shows an example of a sampling trajectory for 105 samples corresponding to Lavender
Mist. Notice that trajectories are not exactly horizontal, simulating in this form certain variance in eye
movements when observing complex structures. The sampling process provides a sequence whose fractality
and scaling properties can be characterized by means of the one-dimensional DFA method described in
Section 2. As in the two-dimensional DFA of the image, the log–log plot F ¼ flogðsÞ versus logðF ðs; qÞÞg
presented a crossover at about 10–30 cm, separating different scaling behavior for low and high length
scales. This behavior can be seen as an evidence that the sampling procedure described above recasts
information of the painting fractal structure. The results for an averaged from 25 runs are shown in the
upper part of Fig. 7. In all cases, the variance (not shown) is less than 3%. The most striking
result is that at low scales, below the crossover at 10–30 cm, the scaling behavior corresponds to 1=f fractal
noise (recall the relationship between fractal dimension and scaling exponent D2;q ¼ 2  aq ), regardless the
canvas year and size. This leads to the conclusion that, rather than fractality itself, the intrinsic 1=f fractal
structures are the responsible of the pleasant perception of the Pollock’s drip paintings. Notice that at
high scales, beyond the crossover, the behavior is less correlated. The higher length scale behavior for
Lavender Mist is almost random (a2;q ! 0:5 or D2;q ! 1:5), implying that the aesthetic scales are constrained
to about 10–30 cm.
An interesting question that has not been addressed previously is whether or not the Pollock’s drip
paintings are isotropic. Isotropy means that the painting have the same aesthetic effect in any direction.
Evidently, figurative art is not isotropic because figures (e.g., faces, trees, etc.) have a preferential direction to
be perceived aesthetically. However, given the abstract nature of drip paintings, one could suspect that
Pollock produced orientation-free visual art. To address this issue, we have made a 90 rotation of the painting
and carried out the sampling process described above. Notice that a 90 rotation corresponds to the

700

600

500
Vertical position, i

400

300

200

100

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Horizontal Position, j

Fig. 6. Example of a viewer’s trajectory for sampling the structure of a painting.

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1.45
1.40 Horizontal

Fractal Dimension, D1,2

1.35
1.30
1.25
1.20
1.15
1.10
1.05
1.00
0.95
1 10 100
1.3
Vertical
1.2
Fractal Dimension, D1,2

1.1

1.0

0.9

0.8 Eyes in the Heat (1946)

Full Fathom Five (1947)
0.7 Cathedral (1947)
Lavender Mist: Number 1 (1950)
0.6
1 10 100
Scale, s (cm)

Fig. 7. (a) Horizontal and (b) vertical results from DFA applied to sequences extracted with the trajectory in Fig. 6. Observe the 1=f -noise
structure for spatial scales below about 10–20 cm.

transposition of the corresponding matrix array. The result are also shown in bottom part of Fig. 7. Notice
that the 1=f fractal behavior is preserved for the same scale range as in the horizontal case, namely, from 10 to
30 cm. This shows that, at least at low length scales, the Pollock’s drip paintings are isotropic; that is,
perception based on eye movements in either horizontal or vertical directions produce essentially the same
aesthetic effect.

5. Concluding remarks

Previous work on analysis of Pollock’s drip paintings focused on reduced structures (color blobs and
luminance contours) to characterize fractality. Maybe, such a constraint was imposed by the fractal analysis
technique (box-counting methods) rather than by image processing methods. In this work, we used the whole
luminance pattern of the painting, which is represented as a matrix array of gray levels (0 for black and 256 for
white). In principle, the whole luminance pattern should contain both color blobs and luminance edges. The
luminance matrix can be seen as a surface whose texture defines the fractal characteristics of the painting.
Regarding the results obtained in this work, we have the following comments:

 By using DFA methods, we corroborate that Pollock’s drip paintings are fractal structures with almost
constant fractal dimension for the creation period 1946–1950. One concludes that fractality (even
multifractality) is an intrinsic component of drip paintings and not an artifact introduced by particular
procedures used to extract color drops and luminance contours (edges) from the whole painting pattern. On
the other hand, the fact that the fractal dimension is scale-dependent (see Fig. 4) implies that the aesthetic
perception is also scale dependent. In practical sense, the esthetical perception over the painting depends of
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the distance of the observer to the painting. Large distances increase the observer length scales and painting
details are lost. In this case, the drip’s painting appears as a random distribution of luminance (i.e., color)
levels. By reducing the observation distance, one will be able to perceive the 10–30 cm structures that,
presumably, induces the automatic pleasant sensation.
 Jones-Smith and Mathur [36] have questioned former contributions on the study of fractality of
Pollock’s drip paintings [10,11,14]. In particular, they questioned the claim that the defining visual
character of Pollock’s drip paintings is their fractal nature and that fractals arise from the specific
pouring technique developed by Pollock. To this end, the authors constructed fractal structures
on the plane having similar characteristics to those of Pollock’s paintings. Of course, such tailored
structures are not considered as artistic creations. Jones-Smith and Mathur [36] were able to construct
such artificial structures because Taylor et al.’s analysis was based on rarified structures (color blobs
and luminance edges) extracted from the painting. Fig. 2 in Jones-Smith and Mathur’s paper demonstrate
that is not hard to construct edge-based structures on the plane with fractal dimension and even
multifractality features, similar to those obtained for Pollock’s drip paintings. However, blobs
and edges are sparse (non-dense) structures of almost any painting. In fact, most painting are distributed
(dense) structures on the plane where each point or region has a specific luminance level, and this
feature should be also considered within a fractality analysis. By considering the whole luminance field, we
have taken a step ahead to corroborate that, in agreement with Taylor et al.’s reply to Jones-Smith
and Mathur’s criticisms [41], Pollock’s drip paintings are fractal structures with fractal dimension
depending of the length scale. Surely, it should not be an easy task to construct dense structures on the
plane with fractality properties similar to those of Pollock’s paintings obtained with our two-dimensional
DFA method.
 So far, it has been shown that Pollock’s drip paintings are (multi) fractal structures, and that fractality is the
intrinsic property that induces the pleasant (aesthetic) nature in the painting. However, fractality and even
multifractality are commonly found in natural images [34]. Hence, as has been claimed previously
[10,11,14], fractality is not sufficient to explain the pleasant (artistic) nature of Pollocks’s paintings. We
have shown that the fractal Pollock’s drip paintings are based on 1=f -noise constructions. As in music [2,9],
it can be conjectured that 1=f -noise structures are responsible of the aesthetic nature of Pollock’s drip
paintings, although future experiments should be performed to check this out. Interestingly, the 1=f -noise
behavior is found at length scales of the order of 10–30 cm where textural fractals (generated by pouring
techniques picture over the canvas) dominates over structural fractals (generated by large Pollock’s motions
over the canvas).
 Taylor et al. [10–12] claim that fractals arise from the specific pouring technique developed by Pollock.
However, Pollock was positively influenced by previous painting vanguards, such as European
Impressionism and Surrealism. Was ‘‘fractal’’ painting technique an original Pollock’s contribution to
visual arts, or the origin can be traced back to, e.g., European impressionism paintings, so that Pollock
developed the technique to virtuous limits? An answer to this question is not an easy task since it involves
complex inter-relations between the physics of painting and many psycho-cultural aspects. To motivate
further studies on fractal visual art, we close the paper by analyzing Wassily Kandinsky’s abstract painting
Composition VII (1913. Oil on canvas, 200  300 cm. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). Kandinsky
(1866–1944) was a Russian-born artist, one of the first creators of pure abstraction in modern painting.
After successful avant-garde exhibitions, he founded the influential Munich group Der Blaue Reiter (The
Blue Rider, 1911–1914) and began completely abstract painting. The importance of studying Kandinsky’s
painting relies on the fact that he is regarded as the first artist to arrive to the idea of total abstraction in art.
In fact, it is apparent that Pollock was largely influenced by Kandinsky’s books and works [17,41]. As in
Pollock’s drip painting, a visual inspection of Kandinsky’s painting (see Fig. 8) appears to be fractal. The
two-dimensional DFA over the Luminance pattern showed that the painting has a crossover at about
18 cm, fractal dimension of 2.073 for low length scales, and fractal dimension of 2.21 for length scales larger
than the crossover. On the other hand, a perception sampling over the canvas showed that the Kandinsky’
painting confirms the presence of the crossover at about 18 cm. The scaling exponent below the crossover
is about a1;q ¼ 1:21, and above the crossover is a1;q ¼ 0:978. Then, contrary to Pollock’s paintings,
the 1=f -noise behavior is displayed at higher scales, and at low scales, below about 18 cm, Kandinsky’s
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Fig. 8. Wassily Kandinsky’s abstract painting Composition VII (1913). Oil on canvas, 200  300 cm. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

painting is more correlated. We conjecture that the origin of fractal painting is in European Impressionism
(e.g., Monet, Kandisnky, etc.), and Pollock’s learnt it and developed it to its performance limits.

Finally, it should be remarked that our results should be considered as complementary to those efforts made
previously by several authors in applying scientific methods for understanding aesthetic creation and
perception.

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