Jackson Pollock

1912-1956

American Artist

Born in Wyoming, but growing up in Arizona and California would have an impact on the colors that Jackson would use later in his life. He attended the Manual Arts High School and by the age of 18, he moved to New York City to study with his brother under artist Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League. There, he learned to focus on what he had known as a boy, a rural America as his main subject matter. Before 1944, Pollock’s art was sometimes considered partially morbid. His style changed one day while he was working on a mural in his converted-barn studio outside Long Island in New York and some paint dripped from his brush onto the floor. He knew that his brush, although it never touched the ‘canvas’ on the floor, had made art. He began painting abstract works using his dripping methods and was dubbed ‘Jack the Dripper’ by the press. By the time he had perfected his art, he wasn’t using brushes at all, but anything that would create an impression, he would throw sand, glass, and drip paint from the ceiling by a towel onto the matter until what resulted was the image he had foreseen in his mind’s eye. Into the 1950s, Pollock’s art again turned into something less colorful, more abstract, and quite dark. He began to re-introduce figures into his art. He died in a car crash that killed him and another passenger; however, his girlfriend survived. His works were all sold upon his death.