Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was born in Cody, Wyoming in 1912, and grew up in Arizona and California. In 1930, he moved to New York City studied under Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League of New York. Pollock was influenced by Benton, Pablo Picasso, and Surrealist automatism. Pollock was introduced to the use of liquid paint in 1936 by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. He developed what was later called his "drip" technique. He used hardened brushes, sticks, and even basting syringes as paint applicators. With this technique, Pollock was able to achieve a more immediate means of creating art, the paint literally flowing from his tool onto the canvas laid on floor. By defying the convention 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. He also moved away from the use of only the hand and wrist, since he used his whole body to paint. Pollock wanted an end to the viewer's search for representational elements in his paintings, and so he abandoned titles and started numbering the paintings instead. Pollock died at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related car accident. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, sometimes struggling with alcoholism. In 1945, he married the painting artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy. Peggy Guggenheim was one of his patrons.
Pollock's work has always polarized critics and has been the focus of many important critical debates. Studies by Taylor, Micolich and Jonas speculated that Pollock may have had an intuition of the nature of chaotic motion. Other experts suggest that Pollock may have merely imitated popular theories of the time in order to give his paintings a depth not previously seen. Many people assumed that Harold Rosenberg 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 It fit well with Greenberg's view of art history as a progressive purification in form and elimination of historical content. Pollock's works were sponsored by the Congress for Cultural Freedom. Some argue that the U.S. government and wealthy elite embraced Pollock and abstract expressionism in order to place the U.S. in the forefront of global art. Others such as artist, critic, and satirist Craig Brown, have been "astonished that decorative 'wallpaper', essentially brainless.." Reynold's News in a 1959 headline said, "This is not art — it's a joke in bad taste."
References
1. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_pollock"
2. Edward Lucie-Smith, “Movements in art since 1945: Issues and Concepts,” Publisher: Thames and Hudson, ISBN 0-500-20282-6 (1995)
3. Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel, “Jackson Pollock,” Publisher: Museum of Modern Art, New York, ISBN0-87070-068-5 (1998)
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