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Pollock Jackson 1912 - 1956 (44)

The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through.


QUOTES

POLLOCK'S PAINTINGS



Jackson Pollock was an American painter, important representatives of abstract expressionism. Born on January 28, 1912 in Wyoming, was the fifth and youngest child of his family. Throughout his childhood they had frequent removals in many cities of Arizona and California until 1928 when they settled in Los Angeles. Jackson at 16 he enrolled at Manual Arts High School, from which he was expelled. He already had been expelled from another high school. . The following year he went to New York where he was his brother and studied in an art school for 2 years. The following two years had been experimenting with painting, living one year with one of his brothers and another year with the other brother and his wife. In 1935 he joined the WPA Federal Art Project as a painter and began to earn money, for first time in his life. Meanwhile he had started drinking and having bouts of depression. He began psychotherapy for dealing with alcoholism, it was reflected in his works which are influenced by psychoanalytic theories. In 1938 he suffered a nervous breakdown and stayed in a psychiatric hospital for four months. In 1943 he made a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum with the support and assistance of the niece of museum’s founder; in 1944 he made his first work in wall dimensions and when he finished it, he had a revolutionary idea. He put easel and brush away, spreaded large tarpaulins on the floor and began to drip, to splash, to throw paint over them, turning around them and participating with all his body. Gradually he discovered that this method could better express his psyche, the stresses and internal conflicts. He called the method dripping, it is known as action painting as well.

In 1944 along with the turn in art, he made a turn and in his personal life, marrying the abstract painter Lee Krasner. Lee took on working so they would have money in order for him to paint undisturbed. She also took care of his public image which was not at its best. While he was sober, he was polite and pleasant but when he was drunk, he had violent outbursts with anyone and anything that stood in his way. His wife tried to protect him from this attitude and to some extent she managed it. For some years Pollock had reduced alcohol and didn’t have nervous breakdowns. From 1946 he had made many exhibitions, nearly one every year. His work divided critics. "If that's art, we are all artists" some said, "Maybe the best American painter," said others. However as he lived no painting was sold in such an amount as to get him out of the economic uncertainty. After his death his painting’s prices soared. On August 11, 1956 Pollock left the world driving drunk and falling to a tree. In the car was two girls as well, one died instantly, the other who was his mistress, she was heavily wounded but survived.