Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956): Passion. I first saw a film of this amazing artist when I was 10 years old, and ever since his incredible expressionism and perennial genius have captivated my soul. The power of his abstract depictions of his feeling by physical means transports my mind to a cacophonous world where everything, even the amorphous is possible and, best of all, beautiful.



"My painting does not come from the easel. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting."

"I continue to get further away from the usual painter's tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc. I prefer sticks, trowels, knives and dripping fluid paint or a heavy impasto with sand, broken glass or other foreign matter added."



The abstract painter Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) is widely known for his spectacular, wall-sized paintings, which typically feature a combination of swirling drips, bright splotches, and bold, rhythmic streaks.

Pollock's signature technique, which he developed in the late 1940s and early 1950s, was to drip house paint--in colors such as black, white, silver, taupe, and teal--from hardened, worn-out brushes, sticks, and other applicators onto enormous sheets of canvas spread across the floor. His approach, however, was somewhat more systematic than the chaotic results might suggest.



Pollock would begin by using a series of fluid strokes to draw a collection of loopy figures. When the paint dried, he would connect the scattered shapes with darker, thicker slashes of pigment. Additional layers of dripped, poured, and hurled paint would further obscure the original forms, creating a dense web of trails across the canvas.

To many, the large eloquent canvases of 1950 are Pollock's greatest achievements. "Autumn Rhythm," painted in October of that year, exemplifies the extraordinary balance between accident and control that Pollock maintained over his technique. The words "poured" and "dripped," commonly used to describe his unorthodox creative process, which involved painting on unstretched canvas laid flat on the floor, hardly suggest the diversity of the artist's movements (flicking, splattering, and dribbling) or the lyrical, often spritual, compositions they produced.




His revolutionary technique can be appreciated in this 'classic' footage (1951)