Jackson Pollock 1912 —1956

“Picasso compared to Pollock seemed like a quiet conformist, a painter out of the past” Bruno Alfieri June 8, 1950:  L'Art Moderna.

“On the floor I am more at ease, I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around in it, work from the four sides and be literally ‘in’ the painting.”
“I feel nearer, more part of the painting…This is akin to the method of Indian sand painters of the West”
Jackson Pollock, 1947

Pollock called his works explosions of unconscious imagery.

"When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing," he said.
"It is only after a sort of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about.
I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc, because the painting has a life of its own.
I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess.
Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well."

Where drip painting was born-The Pollock-Krasner House, now preserved on Springs Fireplace Rd in East Hampton.  Originally built to store fishing equipment, the small barn once stood directly behind the house, where it blocked the view to Accabonac Creek. Pollock had it moved before converting it as his studio. In this modest building, without heat or artificial light, he painted his most famous poured paintings. He preferred to lay the canvas on the floor and walk around it, applying liquid paint from all four sides in a process of spontaneous creativity.

The studio floor is covered with evidence of this singular process. It documents the evolution of Autumn Rhythm, Convergence, Blue Poles and many of his other masterpieces painted between 1946 and 1952, after which the building was winterized. During that renovation, the floor was covered with a new surface, which protected the colors and gestures that had spilled over the edges of his canvases. That covering was removed in 1987-88, revealing the evidence of Pollock’s most productive and innovative years.

One person who was able to watch Pollock at work was the photographer Hans Namuth. One day in 1950 he arrived in Springs (East Hampton) after arranging with the painter to take pictures of him in the barn (studio). On his arrival, he was put-out to find Pollock standing over a canvas in the barn that apparently was already done.  "A dripping wet canvas covered the entire floor," he later recalled. "There was complete silence ... Pollock looked at the painting. Then, unexpectedly, he picked up can and paint brush and started to move around the canvas. It was as if he suddenly realized the painting was not finished. His movements, slow at first, gradually became faster and more dance-like as he flung black, white, and rust-coloured paint onto the canvas. He completely forgot that Lee and I were there; he did not seem to hear the click of the camera shutter ... My photography session lasted as long as he kept painting, perhaps half an hour. In all that time, Pollock did not stop. How could one keep up this level of activity? Finally, he said 'This is it'."

The man who deals with originality is desperately needed, but seldom wanted.

For along with his promise of victory he lets loose the shadows of chaos.     

David Hare on Jackson Pollock

Born to Stella McClure and LeRoy McCoy Pollock, Jackson Pollock was the fifth and youngest son. He was originally from Cody, Wyoming, but was raised in Arizona and California.  Jackson was attending Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles when he was encouraged to pursue his interest in art. He took his studying very seriously and focused for a while on anatomical drawings.  His oldest brother, Charles, went to New York to study with painter Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League. He suggested that Jackson join him and, in 1930, Pollock moved east and enrolled in Benton’s class.   He studied Old Master paintings and mural paintings. He also posed for his teacher’s 1930 murals at the New School for Social Research. Also at work at this time was Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco. He was also exposed to David Alfaro Siquieros. Their experimental techniques and large scale art had a lasting impact on Pollock. 

Oddly overlooked by the art ‘cognoscenti’ is the artist’s own expression of interest and the logical, though art-historically ‘unwashed’, influence that his teacher for 6 years, a man that stood in locus parenti, accomplished painter himself a  American Master painter in his own right, might have played as bedrock to Pollock’s cataclysmic development.  Albert Pinkham Ryder, America’s ‘Visionary Painter’ of the late 19th century  and Thomas Hart Benton, Jackson’s teacher, friend, surrogate father, were those figures.

Pollock worked for several years (1938-1943) for the Federal Arts Project. The FAP was the visual arts arm of the Great Depression Era’s New Deal. Its primary goal was to employ out of work artists. These artists were hired primarily to create art for public spaces. FAP artists are reputed to have created more than 200,000 works of art from posters to murals, some of which stand as the most significant pieces of public art in the USA. Jackson Pollock was one of these artists.

It was the early 1940’s, Pollock was invited to participate in a group exhibition. Here, is where he met his future wife Lee Krasner. His work also came to the attention of Peggy Guggenheim, the wealthy New York heiress whose money built the Guggenheim Museum. She became his dealer and patron, introducing his work to audiences. In November 1943, she gave him a solo exhibition and a contract guaranteeing him one-hundred fifty dollars a month for a year; an annual stipend.

In 1945, Guggenheim lent Pollock the down payment on a small house in The Springs on East Hampton, Long Island. He and his wife lived there till their deaths and their house is now the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center.

There he began creating his characteristic large scale artwork. His work was praised and dismissed at the same time. But he was gaining significant attention with a number of one- person exhibitions. While he was widely known in the New York art world, the rest of the world was introduced to him on August 8th, 1949, when Life magazine did a piece on him and on Willem de Kooning.

The first of these new drip paintings won public exposure at a solo exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery in Manhattan in 1948. The show was an instant sensation and a sell-out. Pollock moved to a larger studio in East Hampton. He was profiled in Life magazine in 1949 as possibly "the greatest living American artist" and in 1950 he produced a series of six paintings for which he remains most famous.
In 1951, Pollock underwent a change in emphasis in his work. He gave up the use of color and instead created a series of black paintings on unprimed canvases.

Betty Parsons Gallery: November 28 - December 16, 1950  Jackson Pollock’s fourth exhibition

Jackson Pollock's fourth solo show at the Betty Parsons Gallery was November 28 - December 16, 1950: 32 paintings were shown, hung from floor to ceiling. Works included Lavender Mist: Number 1 (now in the permanent collection of The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC); Number 3; Number 5 (now in the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Arts);  Number 7 (now in the permanent collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts); Number 8; Number 27; Number 28; Number 29; Autumn Rhythm: Number 30 (nowin the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art); One: Number 31 (in the permanent collection of MOMA) and Number 32 (now in the permanent collection of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf).   Artist, Pollock patron, Alfonso Ossorio made the only purchase, acquiring Lavender Mist.

Reviews in the general press were mixed - reviews in the art press were favorable. Robert Coates in The New Yorker (December 9, 1950) criticized One: Number 31 and Autumn Rhythm: Number 30 for their "meaningless embellishment." Howard Devree in The New York Times asked his readers "Does [Jackson Pollock's] personal comment ever come through to us?" Belle Krasne [B.K.] wrote in Art Digest (December 1, 1950) that the work was Pollock's "richest and most exciting to date" and Art News chose the exhibition as the second best solo show in their January 1951 issue. (John Marin was first and Alberto Giacometti was third).

Jackson Pollock is best known for these Action Paintings.  Action painting (also sometimes called Gestural Abstraction) is a technique where paint is spontaneously splashed, dribbled or smeared onto the canvas as opposed to being carefully and mindfully applied with a paintbrush. This style became widespread in the 1950’s and 1960’s, completely due to Jackson’s break threw, and is closely linked with Abstract Expressionism. The term “Action Painting” was coined by American art critic Harold Rosenberg in 1952. This style of painting focuses on art as a process rather than just a finished product. The act of creation itself is the point and not just the painting alone.

The Abstract Expressionism  movement, was a post-World War II art phenomena, almost more than an ‘evolution’, which essentially put New York at the center of the Western art world.  Painting in this style consisted of applying emphasis on spontaneous motion. Pollock was well accustomed to that approach as he had already adopted ‘action’ painting, a technique whereby colour is randomly splashed, smeared and dripped onto a canvas. Part of what made Pollock’s style unique was his belief that the journey involved in creating art was just as important as the finished product.  In 1949-1950 there were only Willem De Kooning and Jackson Pollock advancing trumpeting the call to abstract expressionism.  So revolutionary, so American was this groundbreaking attack on art was Abstract Expressionism that both were featured in separate articles in Life Magazine – For the first time in the history of art, America took center stage in the world of contemporary art.

Pollock’s Use of Black

Although Jackson Pollock’s black paintings are sometimes referred to as ‘black and white’, works by other painters such as Kooning, Motherwell, and Kline better fit the ‘black and white’ tag. The primary colour in Pollock’s paintings is black.

Pollock began his black paintings by pouring black Duco paint, which he thinned with turpentine, directly onto a blank canvas. The canvas was soft, unlike a primed canvas which is firm, so when the black paint was applied, it blurred (as when a photograph is enlarged and lines appear frayed).  According to his wife Lee Krasner Pollock, her husband’s painting tools were sticks, basting syringes, and old brushes that had become stiff.  
On a personal level, his life was unstable.  His marriage to Krasner was unstable. He had taken a mistress and Krasner took the opportunity to go to Europe to re-evaluate their relationship.  In Paris, on August 12, 1956, Krasner received a call informing her of her husband’s sudden tragic death.

It seems to be all great legends are surrounded by myth.  
And, most legends die at an early age leaving people to wonder
what could have been, if only.

Jackson Pollock’s black paintings redefined the standards of art.
His innovative thinking, awed and inspired artists who followed after him.

A Look at Jackson Pollock’s ‘Black’ Paintings

Pollock’s most recognized black paintings are: Number 28, 1950, Number 31, known as One, Number 1, known as Lavender Mist, and Number 30, known as Autumn Rhythm.

Number 1 (Lavender Mist) - This painting is a combination of oil, enamel, and aluminum.  In the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

Number 5  Though it has yet to be confirmed by either party, a heretofore, little-known Mexican financier named David Martinez has just purchased this work for $142m for what is admittedly a very large Pollock painting named No. 5, 1948. The seller was David Geffen, the Hollywood mogul, and the price - at $4m per square foot - is assuredly the highest ever paid for a single work of art.

Number 28, 1950 – Painted in the early summer of 1950, this enamel on canvas represents many layers of paint applied from all sides of the canvas, in the typical Pollock style. On the verso of the canvas, traces of black and yellow drawings can be detected. It was common of this art movement to start most paintings by drawing figures on the canvas, which were eventually obscured by paint.  It is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Number 30 (Autumn Rhythm) – Painted in October of 1950, Pollock used enamel on canvas to create Number 30. He started by spreading a black line across the canvas, over which he drew white, brown and turquoise lines to create a contrast between light and dark, thin and thick, straight lines and curved lines. It is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Pollock had originally drawn human forms in the 3 sections of the painting but they were typically covered up by the layers of paint. The edges of the canvas are hardly touched with paint, creating a self-made frame that serves as a fence to contain the controlled madness of the colour.
Number 30 is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Number 31 (One) - During the summer and autumn of 1950, Jackson Pollock completed three black paintings in quick sequence, Number 31 being the first of three. This oil and enamel on canvas shows off his mastery of the “drip” technique. What is unique about this painting is that there is no specific point of focus and there is no obvious pattern or repetition; nevertheless, the chaos is controlled. Some of the enamel is matte, and some glossy. The colours weave through one another, like a spider web’s threads of blues and grays, cut with black and white. Although the layers of paint are thick, they still manage to create a delicate harmony.

Number 31 (One) is housed in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Like the Mona Lisa, the Parthnon, the Pyramids of Egypt, and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Pollock’s paintings have become a fundamental cultural reference point-a benchmark against which we measure our accomplishments and who we are. 

Tom and Jack, The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock, Henry Adams.

Following is a partial list of museums which hold Jackson Pollock paintings:

Museum of Modern Art in New York : Untitled, circa 1950; Number 31,1950; She Wolf, 1943.
National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. : Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist); Number 7, 1951; Untitled, circa 1950, ink.
National Gallery of Australia in Canberra : Totem Lesson 2 1945; Blue Poles, Number 11, 1952. 
In 1973, when the National Gallery of Australia paid $1.3 million for his 1952 painting Blue Poles, the art world went wild and the cult of Pollock worship was born.  It was the highest priced painting sold at that time.
Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice : The Moon Woman, 1942; Circumcision, 1946; Alchemy, 1947; Enchanted Forest, 1947; Eyes in the Heat, 1946.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York : Convergence, 1952.
University of Iowa, The Figge Museum of Art.  Davenport, Iowa    "Portrait of H. M."   1945

Benton Testamentary Trust, UMB - Kansas City, MO "Troubled Queen" 1945

Benton Testamentary Trust, UMB - Kansas City, MO "Moon Woman Cuts the Circle"  1944

Consider by most scholars to be the first "Master Work"University of Iowa, The Figge Museum of Art.  Davenport, Iowa    "Mural"  1943 - 44 Commissioned by Peggy Guggenheim (built from letters of his last name, creating swirling patterns he learned from Benton)

Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio : Number 5, 1950.
Dallas Museum of Art in Texas : Cathedral, 1947.
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco : Untitled, circa 1944, etching.
Folkwang Museum in Essen, Germany : Two-sided painting, circa 1950-51.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. : Composition with Pouring II, 1943; Number 2, 1951; Number 25, 1950; Number 3, 1949 Tiger; Water Figure, 1945.
Kunsthaus Zurich : Number 21, 1951.
Kunstmuseum Basel in Switzerland : Electric Night, 1946; Silver and Black I, 1950.
Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester in New York : Farmyard circa 1934; Red, 1950; a number of untitled works.