Jackson Pollock

Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956), known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential 

American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed 

considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and 

struggled with alcoholism for most of his life. In 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner, who became an important 

influence on his career and on his legacy.

Pollock died at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related car accident. In December 1956, he was given a memorial 

retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, and a larger more comprehensive 

exhibition there in 1967. More recently, in 1998 and 1999, his work was honored with large-scale retrospective 

exhibitions at MoMA and at The Tate in London.

Jackson Pollock (1912 – 1956), the pioneer of Abstract Expressionism, challenged the artistic tradition of using an

 easel and brush by pouring and dripping paint onto canvases. His groundbreaking works had a childlike quality which 

belied their stunning complexity and sophistication. Driven by inner torment which compelled him to paint, Pollock 

attached large canvases to the floor, densely pouring, dripping and flinging paint embedded with sand or glass onto

 them with intense physical movement. Influenced by Picasso, Miró, and the Surrealists, Pollock also revolutionized 

a style of painting in which the work has no identifiable parts or point of emphasis, and is painted with a 

stream-of-consciousness technique called psychic automatism.

i love this pattern, the swirls and the lines that 

join them, the colours are spread out and distinguishable, the black & blue is very constant.