Jackson Pollock
On January 28, 1912, Jackson Pollock was born in Cody, a United States citizen who would go on to work as a painter, printmaker, and draftsperson across the middle decades of the twentieth century.
Pollock received his education at Manual Arts High School and later at the Art Students League of New York. His practice fell within the movements of abstract expressionism and action painting, and he worked in the genre of abstract art. Among the notable works he produced were No. 5, 1948, Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), and Blue Poles — three paintings that indicate the scope of his output as an artist working in abstraction.
Pollock died on August 11, 1956, in East Hampton, at the age of forty-four. The works he completed during his lifetime, including Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), Blue Poles, and No. 5, 1948, remain among the recognized examples of abstract expressionism and action painting produced by an American artist of his generation.
Quotes by Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock's insights on:
I continue to get further away from the usual painter's tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc.
Well, painting today certainly seems very vibrant, very alive, very exiting. Five or six of my contemporaries around New York are doing very vital work, and the direction that painting seems to be taken here – is – away from the easel – into some sort, some kind of wall, wall painting...
I’m very representational some of the time, and a little all of the time. But when you’re painting out of your unconscious, figures are bound to emerge.
When I’m painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing. It’s only after a get acquainted period that I see what I’ve been about. I’ve no fears about making changes for the painting has a life of its own.
I’ve had a period of drawing on canvas in black – with some of my early images coming thru -, think the non-objectivists will find them disturbing – and the kids who think it simple to splash a ‘Pollock’ out.
When I say artist I mean the man who is building things – creating molding the earth – whether it be the plains of the west – or the iron ore of Penn. It’s all a big game of construction – some with a brush – some with a shovel – some choose a pen.
Technic is the result of a need new needs demand new technics total control denial of the accident States of order organic intensity energy and motion made visible memories arrested in space, human needs and motives acceptance.
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.