Jackson Pollock

• How would Jackson Pollock be described? He was the first American painter to capture the American imagination

• Which 4 out of 7 elements of design did you employ while drip painting - line, texture, colour, and value.

• Jackson Pollock was not a cowboy (That was a myth to try and market his image)

• Pollock died in 1956 at the age of 44 in a car crash- drinking and driving 

• Allover drip painting was his style

• Jackson Pollock broke from the European tradition and helped found a new movement in America

• Pollock contributed to the Abstract Expressionist movement

• Jackson Pollock worked on the floor so that he could become part of the painting

• he was inspired by the Mexican muralists 

• Jackson used industrial enamel paints- like enamel house paint

• Jackson applied the painted with sticks and turkey basters

• his artwork was large and had repeated calligraphic lines so it was described as 'exulted wallpaper' 

• Pollock paints from the unconscious mind

• Lee Krasner was Jackson’s wife

• Jackson and his wife, Lee, moved from NYC to Springs, in the Hamptons, (Pollock’s studio is still there today)

• The Abstract Expressionist community was influenced by the Hemingway mystique. (It was common at this time that many drank to excess)

• from 1946-1951 Jackson Pollock's allover paintings were made at this time

• Jackson Pollock used gesture and calligraphic lines to create his works of art

• it is described that the viewer can enter Jackson Pollock's paintings because they are big- and yet, they have been described as very calm, quiet, and intimate

       Jackson Pollock's early years

• Pollock was born on a sheep ranch

• Jackson was the youngest of five boys

• It was said that his father was shy, reserved, and financially unsuccessful

• The family traveled a great deal due to financial insecurity at this time

• His mother was regarded as stronger and had an interest in the arts (In terms of crafts)

• His dad's work with land surveying likely impacted Jackson Pollock as a painter in terms of the size of his paintings, space, and scale of his works 

Jackson and education and early creative influences 

• He grew up in southern California

• The Art scene and Art education were limited at this time

• The only new or fresh creative ideas were coming from the Disney operation, or what was going on in France or Mexico

• Polock’s artwork was described as energetic

• As a very young man when he went to the museums in California- they were influenced by ethnographic arts and were inspired  by the Sand Painters of the First Nation Americans

• he liked the energy and directness of the sand painter's approach to painting - they worked on the ground

  1930's

• Jackson Pollock moved to New York City in 1930

• he was influenced by Picasso and thought that Pablo Picasso was a big star of the European art scene

• Peggy Guggenheim was a patron of Jackson Pollock 

• Jackson's work has been described as 'exulted wallpaper'

• Jackson paints from the unconscious

• Jackson said, 'I am nature' which was viewed as rather egotistic at the time

• 1937 on- Jackson Pollock was in and out of therapy (analysis) - so that is why he felt that art came from the unconscious

• Jackson  painted with turkey basters and sticks to achieve gesture and calligraphic lines (He had a great deal of control to make successful compositions)

• Jackson Pollock regarded Matisse and Picasso as the European art stars who also broke from the European tradition. Matisse and Picasso were great sources of inspiration for Pollock. 

• Jackson Pollock's work was featured in Life magazine- which captured the imagination of the American public 

     1948

• 1948- Jackson gave up drinking and it is said that at this time, he produced some of his greatest works

• Pollock’s artwork became more famous due to marketing by his wife, Lee Krasner after he passed away

• a Pollock is sold, in November 2006- possibly for a record price. the Hollywood entertainment magnate David Geffen has sold a classic drip painting by Jackson Pollock for about $140 million, art experts with knowledge of the transaction.

• 1956- had an affair with Ruth Kligman, who was a young artist in New York City.

• When Ruth was visiting Jackson with a friend at his studio, they were going to a party and Jackson was driving under the influence. Ruth survived the car crash while Jackson and her friend died on the scene. 

• Jackson was known as a reckless driver- apparently, driving drunk while expressing his anger

• The art critics of the period say that suicide and alcoholism were a sad dimension of the abstract expressionist movement