Paul Jackson Pollock was a famous abstract expressionist artist who helped change the landscape of modern art. He was born January 28th 1912 in Cody Wyoming, the youngest of 5 sons. Through his early life he and his family moved often till settling in Los Angeles. A trouble maker, he was kicked out of multiple high schools. During this same time, he would often work with his father who was a land surveyor. This exposed him to Native American culture and alcohol. This relationship with alcohol would follow him through his whole life eventually leading to his death in 1956.
In 1930 he and his brother Charles left California to seek education in New York. They attended the Art Students League of New York. They studied under Thomas Hart Benton, Pollock’s relationship with Benton started out as a teacher student dynamic but over time they became quite close. Pollock even took vacations with the Bentons.
In the mid 1930’s, Pollock began working on the Federal Arts Project. This project was a part of president Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal during the Great Depression. The aim of this program was to get as many Americans back to work as possible. This is where Pollock met David Alfaro Siqueiros. Siqueiros believed that revolutionary art needed new materials like automobile lacquer, paint thinner, with techniques like flinging paint.
In 1938, Pollock was removed from his work due to absences. He would later return to the project until he completed the amount of time the government allowed each person to work on the project. Pollock used this time to fight his alcoholism. He underwent Jungian psychotherapy. His doctors used this specific type of therapy to help him express himself through his art. This is why Jungian concepts can be seen in Pollock’s art work. This therapy was meant to encourage and harness imagery of their dreams and to experiment with mark-making techniques that feed the artist from conscious control over their creativity. Pollock created 83 drawings through this therapy. In 1941, Pollock participated in a group exhibition, this is where he met his future wife, Lee Krasner.
Sometime in 1940’s, Pollock found the method of Indian sand painting. He began to change his painting style by putting canvases on the floor using different objects to put paint on canvas such as, sticks and basting syringes. He stated that it makes him feel more a part of the painting, being able to walk around the canvas looking from all sides.
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In 1943, Pollock began working for Peggy Guggenheim; she commissioned him to create a mural. She gave him this task to let him unleash the force that he puts on smaller paintings. After weeks of a blank canvas and the deadline months past he seemingly exploded with energy and completed the entire painting in one night on New Year’s Day 1944. In 1944, Peggy Guggenheim sold ‘The She-Wolf’ to the Museum of Modern Art where it still is to this day. This was his first painting of Pollock’s that was sold to a museum collection. “Any attempt on my part to say something about it, to attempt explanation of the inexplicable, could only destroy it”.
In 1945, Peggy Guggenheim loaned Pollock a down payment on a house on Long Island. He married Lee Krasner and they moved in together. The house was both of their art studios, Pollok had his outside in the barn and Krasner had hers inside the house. Krasner was sure of her husband’s talent, she became very influential and helped manage him. They lived there the rest of their lives.
The next few years are when Pollock started to gain traction. Pollock became deeply involved in his famous ‘drip’ painting style. He created very densely layered works, often painting over the same canvas over and over again. He placed large canvases on the floor, put on his painting shoes and got to work. Placing layer upon layer using sticks dowels, and knives. He eventually started to place objects into the painting its self-such as glass coins and nails.
In 1949, Life magazine did a large spread on Pollock asking the question, “Is he the greatest living painter in the United States”. This boosted his fame and popularity instantaneously, but it seemed to have an inverse effect on his mental health and self-image all the attention made him feel like a phony. He returned to drinking and entered what is called his ‘black’ period. He began a series of painting which were just black on an unprimed canvas. A lot of these work he said might be disturbing. With some sort of creature in the work.
In 1955, Pollock had become distant and consumed by his addictions. He painted two last pieces ‘Scent’ and ‘Search’. In 1956, Krasner took the opportunity to travel to Europe to reassess her marriage. While she was on this trip she was informed of his death, an automobile accident while Pollock was driving drunk.
Jackson Pollock’s paintings continued to inspire and reach fame after his death. His chaotic, dense drip style is constantly discussed and analyzed.
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