Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock had achieved considerable attention by 1950 as a leading figure in a new generation of artists. He was not only a major figure in artistic circles he also attracted public attention for both his unconventional painting techniques and his lifestyle, which included some heavy drinking and open displays of wild behavior. Paul Jackson Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming and raised in Arizona and California. In 1930 he moved to New York to join his brothers at the Art Students League. There he studied with Thomas Hart Benton, a regional artist whom Pollock admired. In 1945 he married artist Lee Krasner and in 1947 he abandoned the paint brush and began the "drip paintings" that made him famous. He laid monumental canvases on the floor and dripped enamel from sticks as he approached the canvas from all sides. The physical gestures used to create the work prompted the term "action painting". This important innnovaton shifted the center of the art world from Paris to New York and was the beginning of Abstract Expressionism. Other artists associated with this movement include Willem DeKooning, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, Lee Krasner, Robert Motherwell. There primary ideology was the visual expression of inner emotion is the primary function of art. In 1948 he had his first one man show at Betty Parson's Gallery. Throughout his career he received extensive treatment for alcholism and depression. Pollock was killed in a car accident on August 11,1956 near his studio in East Hampton.

Jackson Pollock Images:
Alchemy, 1947
Composition
Convergence
Lucifer
Number 18, 1950
Number III
Painting, 1948
Yellow Grey