Jackson Pollock

Infobox Artist
bgcolour = silver
name = Jackson Pollock


imagesize =
caption = Photographer Hans Namuth extensively documented Pollock's unique painting techniques.
birthname = Paul Jackson Pollock
birthdate = birth date|1912|1|28|mf=y
location = Cody, Wyoming
deathdate = death date and age|1956|8|11|1912|1|28|mf=y
deathplace = Springs, New York
nationality = American
field = Painter
training =
movement = Abstract expressionism
works =
patrons = Peggy Guggenheim
awards =

Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) was an influential American painter and a major force in the abstract expressionist movement. He was married to noted abstract painter Lee Krasner.

Early life

Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming in 1912,Piper, David. "The Illustrated History of Art", ISBN 0753701790, p460-461.] the youngest of five sons.Fact|date=August 2007 His father was a farmer and later a land surveyor for the government. He grew up in Arizona and Chico, California, studying at Los Angeles' Manual Arts High School. During his early life, he experienced Native American culture while on surveying trips with his father. In 1930, following his brother Charles, he moved to New York City, where they both studied under Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League of New York. Benton's rural American subject matter shaped Pollock's work only fleetingly, but his rhythmic use of paint and his fierce independence were more lasting influences. From 1935 to 1943, Pollock worked for the WPA Federal Art Project. [cite web |url=http://www.beatmuseum.org/pollock/jacksonpollock.html |title=Jackson Pollock |accessdate=2007-09-28 |publisher=The American Museum of Beat Art]

The Springs period and the unique technique

In October 1945, Pollock married another important American painter, Lee Krasner, and in November they moved to what is now known as the Pollock-Krasner House and Studio in Springs on Long Island, New York. Peggy Guggenheim loaned them the down payment for the wood-frame house with a nearby barn that Pollock made into a studio. It was there that he perfected the technique of working spontaneously with liquid paint.

Pollock was introduced to the use of liquid paint in 1936, at an experimental workshop operated in New York City by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. He later used paint pouring as one of several techniques in canvases of the early 1940s, such as "Male and Female" and "Composition with Pouring I." After his move to Springs, he began painting with his canvases laid out on the studio floor, and developed what was later called his "drip" technique. The drip technique required paint with a fluid viscosity so Pollock turned to then new synthetic resin-based paints, called alkyd enamels. Pollock described this use of household paints, instead of artist’s paints, as "a natural growth out of a need".cite web |url=http://painting.about.com/od/colourtheory/a/Pollock_paint.htm |title=What Paint Did Pollock Use? |accessdate=2007-09-28 |last=Boddy-Evans |first=Marion |publisher=about.com] He used hardened brushes, sticks and even basting syringes as paint applicators. Pollock's technique of pouring and dripping paint is thought to be one of the origins of the term action painting. With this technique, Pollock was able to achieve a more immediate means of creating art, the paint now literally flowing from his chosen tool onto the canvas. By defying the conventional way of painting on an upright surface, he added a new dimension, literally, by being able to view and apply paint to his canvases from all directions.

In the process of making paintings in this way he moved away from figurative representation, and challenged the Western tradition of using easel and brush, as well as moving away from use only of the hand and wrist; as he used his whole body to paint. In 1956 "Time" magazine dubbed Pollock "Jack the Dripper" as a result of his unique painting style. [cite web |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808194-2,00.html |title=The Wild Ones |accessdate=2008-09-15 |publisher=Time (magazine) ]

Pollock observed Indian sandpainting demonstrations in the 1940s. Other influences on his dripping technique include the Mexican muralists and also Surrealist automatism. Pollock denied "the accident"; he usually had an idea of how he wanted a particular piece to appear. It was about the movement of his body, over which he had control, mixed with the viscous flow of paint, the force of gravity, and the way paint was absorbed into the canvas. The mix of the uncontrollable and the controllable. Flinging, dripping, pouring, spattering, he would energetically move around the canvas, almost as if in a dance, and would not stop until he saw what he wanted to see. Studies by Taylor, Micolich and Jonas have explored the nature of Pollock's technique and have determined that some of these works display the properties of mathematical fractals; and that the works become more fractal-like chronologically through Pollock's career. [Citation |url=http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/phys_about/PHYSICS!/FRACTAL_EXPRESSIONISM/fractal_taylor.html |title=Can Science Be Used To Further Our Understanding Of Art? |accessdate=2008-09-15 |last1=Taylor |first1=Richard |last2=Micolich |first2=Adam P. |last3=Jonas |first3=David ] They even go on to speculate that on some level, Pollock may have been aware of the nature of chaotic motion, and was attempting to form what he perceived as a perfect representation of mathematical chaos - more than ten years before Chaos Theory itself was discovered.Even though some experts have pointed to the possibility that he (Pollock) could have simply been imitating popular theories of the time in order to give his paintings a depth not previously seen.

In 1950 Hans Namuth, a young photographer, wanted to photograph and film Pollock at work. Pollock promised to start a new painting especially for the photographic session, but when Namuth arrived, Pollock apologized and told him the painting was finished. Namuth's comment upon entering the studio:

The 1950s and beyond

Pollock's most famous paintings were during the "drip period" between 1947 and 1950. He rocketed to popular status following an August 8, 1949 four-page spread in Life Magazine that asked, "Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?" At the peak of his fame, Pollock abruptly abandoned the drip style. [ [http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/saltz/saltz9-18-06.asp The Tempest by Jerry Saltz (repinted on artnet.com)] ]

Pollock's work after 1951 was darker in color, including a collection in black on unprimed canvases, followed by a return to colorcite web |url=http://www.jackson-pollock.com/biography.html |title=Biography |accessdate=2007-09-28 |publisher=Jackson-pollock.com] and he reintroduced figurative elements. During this period Pollock had moved to a more commercial gallery and there was great demand from collectors for new paintings. In response to this pressure, along with personal frustration, his alcoholism deepened.Fact|date=October 2007

From naming to numbering

Pollock wanted an end to the viewer's search for representational elements in his paintings, thus he abandoned naming them and started numbering them instead. Of this, Pollock commented: "...look passively and try to receive what the painting has to offer and not bring a subject matter or preconceived idea of what they are to be looking for." Pollock's wife, Lee Krasner, said Pollock "used to give his pictures conventional titles... but now he simply numbers them. Numbers are neutral. They make people look at a picture for what it is - pure painting."

Death

Pollock did not paint at all in 1955. After struggling with alcoholism his whole life, Pollock's career was cut short when he died in an alcohol-related, single car crash in his Oldsmobile convertible, less than a mile from his home in Springs, New York on August 11, 1956 at the age of 44. One of his passengers, Edith Metzger, died, while the other passenger, Pollock's girlfriend Ruth Kligman, survived. After his death, Pollock's wife, Lee Krasner, managed his estate and ensured that Pollock's reputation remained strong in spite of changing art-world trends. They are buried in Green River Cemetery in Springs with a large boulder marking his grave and a smaller one marking hers.

Legacy

The Pollock-Krasner House and Studio is owned and administered by the Stony Brook Foundation, a non-profit affiliate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. There are regular tours of the house and studio from May - October.

A separate organization, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, was established in 1985. The Foundation not only functions as the official Estate for both Pollock and his widow Lee Krasner, but also, under the terms of Krasner's will, serves "to assist individual working artists of merit with financial need." [ [http://www.pkf.org/press.html The Pollock-Krasner Foundation website: Press Release page] ] The U.S. copyright representative for the Pollock-Krasner Foundation is the Artists Rights Society [ [http://arsny.com/requested.html Most frequently requested artists list of the Artists Rights Society] ] .

In 2000, the biographical film "Pollock" was released. Marcia Gay Harden won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Lee Krasner. The movie was the project of Ed Harris who portrayed Pollock and directed it. He was nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor.

In 1960, Ornette Coleman's album "Free Jazz" featured a Pollock painting as its cover artwork.

In 1973, Blue Poles "(Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952)," was purchased by the Australian Whitlam Government for the National Gallery of Australia for US$2 million (A$1.3 million at the time of payment). At the time, this was the highest price ever paid for a modern painting. In the conservative climate of the time, the purchase created a political and media scandal.

The painting is now one of the most popular exhibits in the gallery, and now is thought to be worth between $100 and $150 million, according to the latest news.cite news | url= http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=general&story_id=528424&category=General&m=11&y=2006 | title= Our Poles world's top-priced painting? | date=November 4, 2006 | work=The Canberra Times] It was a centerpiece of the Museum of Modern Art's 1998 retrospective in New York, the first time the painting had returned to America since its purchase.

In November 2006 Pollock's "No. 5, 1948" became the world's most expensive painting, when it was sold privately to an undisclosed buyer for the sum of $140,000,000. The previous owner was film and music-producer David Geffen. It is rumored that the current owner is a German businessman and art collector.

An ongoing debate rages over whether 24 paintings and drawings found in a Wainscott, New York locker in 2003 are Pollock originals. Physicists have argued over whether fractals can be used to authenticate the paintings. Analysis of the pigments shows some were not yet patented at the time of Pollock's death. The debate is still inconclusive. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/02/books/02frac.html?ex=1322715600&en=088aba6319b31d32&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss The Case of Pollock’s Fractals Focuses on Physics by Randy Kennedy - New York Times - December 2, 2006] ] [ [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20216976/site/newsweek/ Seeing Is Believing? Is this a real Jackson Pollock? A mysterious trove of pictures rocks the art world. Cathleen McGuigan, Newsweek Aug. 20-27, 2007 issue] ]

In 2006 a documentary, "Who the Fuck Is Jackson Pollock?", was released which featured a truck driver named Teri Horton who bought what may be a Pollock painting worth millions at a thrift store for five dollars.

Relationship to Native American art

Pollock stated:“I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk round it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting. This is akin to the methods of the Indian sand painters of the West.” [Jackson Pollock, "My Painting", in Pollock: Painting (edited by Barbara Rose), Agrinde Publications Ltd: New York (1980), page 65; originally published in Possibilities I, New York, Winter 1947-8]

=Critical debate= Pollock's work has always polarized critics and has been the focus of many important critical debates.

In a famous 1952 article in ARTnews, Harold Rosenberg coined the term "action painting," and wrote that "what was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event. The big moment came when it was decided to paint 'just to paint.' The gesture on the canvas was a gesture of liberation from value — political, aesthetic, moral." Many people assumed that he had modeled his "action painter" paradigm on Pollock.
Clement Greenberg supported Pollock's work on formalistic grounds. It fit well with Greenberg's view of art history as being about the progressive purification in form and elimination of historical content. He therefore saw Pollock's work as the best painting of its day and the culmination of the Western tradition going back via Cubism and Cézanne to Manet. Posthumous exhibitions of Pollock's work had been sponsored by the Congress for Cultural Freedom, an organization to promote American culture and values backed by the CIA. Certain left wing scholars, most prominently Eva Cockcroft, argue that the U.S. government and wealthy elite embraced Pollock and abstract expressionism in order to place the United States firmly in the forefront of global art and devalue socialist realism. [ [http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr229/molyneux.htm Expression of an age] ] [Saunders, F. S. (2000), The Cultural Cold War. The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters, New York: Free Press.] In the words of Cockcroft, Pollock became a 'weapon of the Cold War'. [ Eva Cockcroft, ‘Abstract Expressionism, Weapon of the Cold War’ in Artforum vol.12, no.10, June 1974, pp. 43-54.] Painter Norman Rockwell's work "Connoisseur" [ [http://www.artchive.com/artchive/R/rockwell/rockwell_connoisseur.jpg.html Rockwell, Norman] the Artchive] also appears to make a commentary on the Pollock style. The painting features what seems to be a rather upright man in a suit standing before a Jackson Pollock-like splatter painting.

Others such as artist, critic, and satirist Craig Brown, have been "astonished that decorative 'wallpaper', essentially brainless, could gain such a position in art history alongside Giotto, Titian, and Velázquez." [BBC2 Late Review: review of Jackson Pollock exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London, 1999] "Reynolds News" in a 1959 headline said, "This is not art — it's a joke in bad taste." [ [http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr229/molyneux.htm Expression of an age] ]

List of major works

* (1942) "Male and Female" Philadelphia Museum of Art [http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/pollock.male-female.jpg]
* (1942) "Stenographic Figure" Museum of Modern Art [http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/pollock.stenographic.jpg]
* (1943) "Mural" University of Iowa Museum of Art [http://www.uiowa.edu/uima/collections/img/eur-amer/1959_6.html]
* (1943) "Moon-Woman Cuts the Circle" [http://www.beatmuseum.org/pollock/images/moon.jpg]
* (1943) "The She-Wolf" Museum of Modern Art [http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/pollock.she-wolf.jpg]
* (1943) "Blue (Moby Dick)" Ohara Museum of Art [http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/pollock.moby-dick.jpg]
* (1945) "Troubled Queen" Museum of Fine Arts, Boston [http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?recview=true&id=34645&coll_keywords=Pollock&coll_accession=&coll_name=&coll_artist=&coll_place=&coll_medium=&coll_culture=&coll_classification=&coll_credit=&coll_provenance=&coll_location=&coll_has_
]
* (1946) "Eyes in the Heat" Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice [http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/pollock.eyes-heat.jpg]
* (1946) "The Key" Art Institute of Chicago [http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/pollock.key.jpg]
* (1946) "The Tea Cup" Collection Frieder Burda [http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/pollock.tea-cup.jpg]
* (1946) "Shimmering Substance", from "The Sounds In The Grass" Museum of Modern Art [http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/pollock.shimmering.jpg]
* (1947) "Full Fathom Five" Museum of Modern Art [http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/fathom-five/pollock.fathom-five.jpg]
* (1947) "Cathedral" [http://www.beatmuseum.org/pollock/cathedral.html]
* (1947) "Enchanted Forest" Peggy Guggenheim Collection [http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/images/lists/work/129_4_lg.jpg]
* (1948) "Painting" [http://www.centrepompidou.fr/images/oeuvres/XL/3I01535.jpg]
* (1948) "Number 5" (4ft x 8ft) Private collection
* (1948) "Number 8" [http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/english/courses/dilligan/English262/images/Pollock/no8.jpg]
* (1948) "Summertime: Number 9A" Tate Modern [http://homepage.mac.com/mag16/UniversityWebPage/vacantPositions/ImagesVacant/summertime.jpg]
* (1949) "Number 1" Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles [http://www.moca.org/museum/pc_artwork_detail.php?&acsnum=89.23&keywords=No.%201%2C%201949&x=27&y=3]
* (1949) "Number 3"
* (1949) "Number 10" Museum of Fine Arts, Boston [http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?recview=true&id=34114&coll_keywords=Pollock&coll_accession=&coll_name=&coll_artist=&coll_place=&coll_medium=&coll_culture=&coll_classification=&coll_credit=&coll_provenance=&coll_location=&coll_has_
]
* (1950) "Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist)" National Gallery of Art [http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/lavender-mist/pollock.lavender-mist.jpg]
* (1950) "Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), 1950" Metropolitan Museum of Art [http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=21&viewmode=0&item=57.92]
* (1950) "Number 29, 1950" National Gallery of Canada [http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/artist_e.jsp?iartistid=4391]
* (1950) "One: Number 31, 1950" Museum of Modern Art [http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=78386]
* (1950) "No. 32" [http://www.kunstsammlung.de/index.php?id=179&L=1]
* (1951) "Number 7" National Gallery of Art [http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?62343+0+0]
* (1952) "Convergence" Albright-Knox Art Gallery [http://www.albrightknox.org/ArtStart/art/K1956_7.jpg]
* (1952) "Blue Poles: No. 11, 1952" National Gallery of Australia [http://www.asmilan.org/teachers/jmaddock/Featured%20Artists/Jackson-Pollock---Blue-Pole.jpg]
* (1953) "Portrait and a Dream" [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/portrait/story/0,,991689,00.html]
* (1953) "Easter and the Totem" The Museum of Modern Art [http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/pollock.easter-totem.jpg]
* (1953) "Ocean Greyness" [http://www.artbarreiro.com/artistas/pollock/photos/oceanGreyness.jpg]
* (1953) "The Deep"

References

* Herskovic, Marika. [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/50253062&tab=holdings "American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey,"] (New York School Press, 2003.) ISBN 0-9677994-1-4
* Herskovic, Marika. [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/50666793&tab=holdings "New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists,"] (New York School Press, 2000.) ISBN 0-9677994-0-6
* Karmel, Pepe, ed. Jackson Pollock: Interviews, Articles, and Reviews. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1999.
* O'Connor, Francis V. Jackson Pollock [exhibition catalogue] (New York, Museum of Modern Art, [1967] ) OCLC 165852
* Taylor, Richard; Micolich, Adam; Jonas, David: Fractal Expressionism, "Physics World", October 1999
* Naifeh, Steven and Smith, Gregory White, "Jackson Pollock:an American saga," Published by Clarkson N. Potter, Inc.1989, ISBN 0-517-56084-4
*http://www.jackson-pollock.com/didyouknow.html

Notes

External links

* [http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/pkhouse.nsf Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center]
* [http://www.pkf.org Pollock-Krasner Foundation]
* [http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A4675&page_number=1&template_id=6&sort_order=1 Pollock art at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)]
* [http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_works_129_0.html Pollock collection at Guggenheim NY site]
* [http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/ Pollock on Museum Web Paris]
* [http://www.lawforart.com/pollock.html Pollock and The Law]
* [http://www.comtogether.com/art/miscpix/pollock.htm Pollock, sculpture by Robert Arneson, 1983]
* [http://www.nga.gov/feature/pollock/index.htm National Gallery of Art web feature, includes highlights of Pollock's career, numerous examples of his work, photographs and motion footage of Pollock, plus an in-depth discussion of his 1950 painting "Lavender Mist".]
* [http://www.nga.gov.au/International/Catalogue/Detail.cfm?IRN=36334&MnuID=2&GalID=1 "Blue Poles"] - at the NGA
* [http://smarthistory.org/blog/55/jackson-pollock-one-number-31-1950-1950-moma/ "One. Number 31, 1950"] - smARThistory
* [http://materialscience.uoregon.edu/taylor/art/info.html#Recent_Publications Fractal Expressionism] – the fractal qualities of Pollock's drip paintings.
* [http://www.harley.com/art/abstract-art/ Understanding Abstract Art] - by Harley Hahn
* [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2219685,00.html Ed Pilkington, "Pollock cache may have been painted after artist's death," The Guardian, 30 November 2007]
* [http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/findingaids/polljack.htm Jackson Pollock Papers at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art]
* (public domain in Canada)

Persondata
NAME= Pollock, Jackson
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Pollock, Paul Jackson
SHORT DESCRIPTION= American painter and a major force in the abstract expressionist movement
DATE OF BIRTH= birth date|1912|1|28|mf=y
PLACE OF BIRTH= Cody, Wyoming
DATE OF DEATH= death date|1956|8|11|mf=y
PLACE OF DEATH= Springs, New York