Pollock, Jackson, 1912–56, American painter, b. Cody, Wyo. He studied (1929–31) in New York City, mainly under Thomas Hart Benton Benton, Thomas Hart, 1889–1975, American regionalist painter, b. Neosho, Mo.; grandnephew of Sen. Thomas Hart Benton and son of Congressman Maecenas E. Benton.
..... Click the link for more information. , but he was more strongly influenced by A. P. Ryder Ryder, Albert Pinkham, 1847–1917, American painter, b. New Bedford, Mass. In 1867 his family moved to New York City. There he studied with W. E. Marshall, the engraver, and at the National Academy of Design, but he was largely self-taught.
..... Click the link for more information. and the Mexican muralists, especially Siqueiros Siqueiros, David Alfaro (dävēth` älfä`rō sēkā`rōs), 1896–1974, Mexican painter, b.
..... Click the link for more information. . From 1938 to 1942, Pollock worked on the Federal Art Project in New York City. Affected by surrealism surrealism (sərē`əlĭzəm)
..... Click the link for more information. and also by Picasso Picasso, Pablo (Pablo Ruiz y Picasso) (pä`blō pēkä`sō; r
..... Click the link for more information. , he moved toward a highly abstract art in order to express, rather than illustrate, feeling. His experimentations led to the development of his famous "drip" technique, in which he energetically drew or "dripped" complicated linear rhythms onto enormous canvases, which were often placed flat on the floor. He sometimes applied paint directly from the tube, and at times also used aluminum paint to achieve a glittery effect. His vigorous attack on the canvas and intense devotion to the very act of painting led to the term "action painting." Pollock had become a symbol of the new artistic revolt, abstract expressionism abstract expressionism, movement of abstract painting that emerged in New York City during the mid-1940s and attained singular prominence in American art in the following decade; also called action painting and the New York school.
..... Click the link for more information. , by the time he was killed in an automobile accident. His paintings are in many major collections, including museums in New York City, San Francisco, Dallas, and Chicago. Pollock was married to the painter Lee Krasner Krasner, Lee (krăs`nər, krăz`–), 1911–84, American artist, b. Brooklyn.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Bibliography

See H. Harrison, ed., Such Desperate Joy: Imagining Jackson Pollock (2001) and P. Karmel, ed., Jackson Pollock: Key Interviews, Articles, and Reviews (2002); catalogue raisonné, 4 vol., ed. by F. V. O'Connor and E. B. Thaw (1978, supplement 1995) and catalog ed. by K. Varnedoe and P. Karmel (1998); B. H. Friedman, Jackson Pollock: Energy Made Visible (1972, repr. 1995); D. Solomon, Jackson Pollock: A Biography (1987); S. Naifeh and G. W. Smith, Jackson Pollock: An American Genius (1988); E. G. Landau, Jackson Pollock (1989); C. Ratcliff, The Fate of a Gesture: Jackson Pollock and Post-War American Art (1996).

Pollock, (Paul) Jackson

Jackson Pollock painting in his studio on Long Island, New York, 1950.

(born Jan. 28, 1912, Cody, Wyo., U.S.—died Aug. 11, 1956, East Hampton, N.Y.) U.S. painter. He grew up in California and Arizona. In the early 1930s he studied in New York City under Thomas Hart Benton, and later he was employed on the WPA Federal Art Project. In 1945 he married the artist Lee Krasner. Two years later, after several years of semiabstract work stimulated by psychotherapy, Pollock began to lay his canvas on the floor and pour or drip paint onto it in stages. This process permitted him to record the force and scope of his gestures in trajectories of enamel or aluminum paint that “veiled” the figurative elements found in his earlier work. The results were huge areas covered with complex and dynamic linear patterns that fuse image and form and engulf the vision of the spectator in their scale and intricacy. Pollock believed that art derived from the unconscious and judged his work and that of others on its inherent authenticity of personal expression. He became known as a leading practitioner of Abstract Expressionism, particularly the form known as action painting. Championed by critic Clement Greenberg and others, he became a celebrity. When he died in a car crash at 44, he was one of the few American painters to be recognized during his lifetime and afterward as the peer of 20th-century European masters of modern art.

Pollock, (Paul) Jackson (1912–56) painter; born in Cody, Wyo. He grew up in Wyoming and California, moved to New York City, and studied intermittently with Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League (c. 1929–32). His paintings of the 1930s, such as Birth (1937), anticipate the turbulent impasto and sexual imagery of his later work. His first major exhibition was organized by Peggy Guggenheim (1943) when he was using mythological themes, as seen in The She Wolf (1943). Around 1946 he settled in Easthampton, Long Island, and began his critically acclaimed abstract work exemplified by Full Fathom Five (1947). The spatter-and-drip technique used on his large canvases (1945–55) established his reputation as a major abstract expressionistic painter. He explored figurative studies, but shortly before his death in an automobile accident, he reclaimed his interest in action painting.