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How did Jackson Pollock develop his style?
The study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE. Some of the iconic pieces Pollock created were not created with a brush, but by pouring paint with the aid of a stick to create overlapping strands and filaments of color.
Where Did Jackson Pollock create his paintings?
Springs, New YorkAfter his move to Springs, New York, he began painting with his canvases laid out on the studio floor and he developed what was later called his "drip" technique. From 1938 to 1942 Pollock worked for the WPA Federal Art Project.
How long did it take for Jackson Pollock to make a painting?
Pollock finished it about three years before he began doing the drip paintings that would make him famous.
What tools did Jackson Pollock use?
Instead of using conventional artist brushes to push or smear liquid paint across the surface of the painting, Pollock now used things like sticks, even turkey basters or dried paint brushes, hard as a rock, that he variously dripped, drizzled, poured, or splashed paint onto the canvas below him from.
What was unique about Jackson Pollock's method of painting?
Art historians term Pollock's unique style as Abstract Expressionist, especially as gestural abstraction. In this, Pollock chose not to explore the subject of the art, but instead how the paint was applied on the canvas.
What is Jackson Pollock artistic style called?
Abstract ExpressionismJackson Pollock was an American painter who was a leading exponent of Abstract Expressionism, an art movement characterized by the free-associative gestures in paint sometimes referred to as “action painting.”
How much is a Jackson Pollock painting worth?
Jackson Pollock's work has been offered at auction multiple times, with realized prices ranging from 12 USD to 61,161,000 USD, depending on the size and medium of the artwork. Since 2000 the record price for this artist at auction is 61,161,000 USD for Number 17, sold at Sotheby's New York in 2021.
How much is Jackson Pollock's Mural worth?
$140 millionIt's been nine years since Jackson Pollock's "Mural" has been displayed in Iowa City. The work — which has been appraised at $140 million — had to be removed in 2008 from the UI Museum of Art's long-time home due to Iowa River flooding.
What was Jackson Pollock most expensive painting?
Jackson Pollock No. 5, 1948. The 2006 sale by record mogul David Geffen of this Abstract Expressionist work by American painter Jackson Pollock for $140 million made it the most expensive painting ever sold to date, according to a report in The New York Times from Nov. 2 of that year.
How do you make paint look like it's dripping?
3:027:22Acrylic Painting Tutorial | The Controlled Drip - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipSo just like slowly adding water at this point getting it thinner and thinner and thinner. You canMoreSo just like slowly adding water at this point getting it thinner and thinner and thinner. You can build up a little bit more paint as well that way when you're adding. Water.
How do you make paint runny?
Adding up to 30 percent water to acrylic paint thins it but still allows it to coat a surface. Adding 60 percent or more water creates a watery paint application called a wash.
What type of canvas did Pollock use?
The artist Lee Krasner, who was married to Pollock, described his palette as "typically a can or two of… enamel thinned to the point he wanted it, standing on the floor beside the rolled-out canvas" and that Pollock used Duco or Davoe and Reynolds brands of paint.
What was Jackson Pollock most expensive painting?
Jackson Pollock No. 5, 1948. The 2006 sale by record mogul David Geffen of this Abstract Expressionist work by American painter Jackson Pollock for $140 million made it the most expensive painting ever sold to date, according to a report in The New York Times from Nov. 2 of that year.
Where is the deep by Jackson Pollock?
ParisThe Deep is an abstract expressionist painting by American painter Jackson Pollock....The Deep (painting)The DeepYear1953TypeOil and Enamel on canvasDimensions150.7 cm × 220.4 cm (59.3 in × 86.8 in)LocationCentre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France1 more row
How much did Jackson Pollock's paintings sell for?
Pollock's current auction record is $58.4 million, set in 2013 for Number 19 (1948) at Christie's New York. To date, more than eight Pollock works have sold for over $20 million apiece at auction, according to the Artnet Price Database.
Who was Jackson Pollock?
Jackson Pollock was an American painter who was a leading exponent of Abstract Expressionism, an art movement characterized by the free-associative...
What did Jackson Pollock paint?
Jackson Pollock is best known for his action paintings and Abstract Expressionist works. For these pieces, many made during his “poured” period, Po...
Where was Jackson Pollock from?
Jackson Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming, on January 28, 1912. His family lived there for 11 months after his birth, and Pollock never returned to...
Where did Jackson Pollock live?
Jackson Pollock lived in New York after moving there in 1930 to study art. He lived with his brother Charles and later in an apartment in Greenwich...
How did Jackson Pollock die?
Jackson Pollock died in a car crash in the summer of 1956 at age 44. He was driving under the influence of alcohol and was killed after he was thro...
What was Pollock's painting called?
These paintings have been referred to as his "Black pourings" and when he exhibited them at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York, none of them sold. Parsons later sold one to a friend at half the price.
How much did Pollock's painting cost?
In 2016, Pollock's painting titled Number 17A was reported to have fetched US$200 million in a private purchase. A reclusive and volatile personality, Pollock struggled with alcoholism for most of his life. In 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy.
How did Pollock die?
Pollock died at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related single-car accident when he was driving . In December 1956, four months after his death, Pollock was given a memorial retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.
Why did Pollock start numbering his paintings?
Continuing to evade the viewer's search for figurative elements in his paintings , Pollock abandoned titles and started numbering his works. He said about this, " [L]ook passively and try to receive what the painting has to offer and not bring a subject matter or preconceived idea of what they are to be looking for." His wife said, "He used to give his pictures conventional titles ... but now he simply numbers them. Numbers are neutral. They make people look at a picture for what it is—pure painting."
Why was Pollock called Jack the Dripper?
In 1956, Time magazine dubbed Pollock "Jack the Dripper" due to his painting style.
What influences Pollock's work?
The work of Thomas Hart Benton, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró influenced Pollock. Pollock started using synthetic resin-based paints called alkyd enamels, which at that time was a novel medium. Pollock described this use of household paints, instead of artist's paints, as "a natural growth out of a need". He used hardened brushes, sticks, and even basting syringes as paint applicators. Pollock's technique of pouring and dripping paint is thought to be one of the origins of the term action painting. With this technique, Pollock was able to achieve a more immediate means of creating art, the paint now literally flowing from his chosen tool onto the canvas. By defying the convention of painting on an upright surface, he added a new dimension by being able to view and apply paint to his canvases from all directions.
What was Pollock's job?
From 1938 to 1942 Pollock worked for the WPA Federal Art Project. During this time Pollock was trying to deal with his established alcoholism; from 1938 through 1941 he underwent Jungian psychotherapy with Dr. Joseph L. Henderson and later with Dr. Violet Staub de Laszlo in 1941–42. Henderson engaged him through his art, encouraging Pollock to make drawings. Jungian concepts and archetypes were expressed in his paintings. Some historians have hypothesized that Pollock might have had bipolar disorder. Pollock signed a gallery contract with Peggy Guggenheim in July 1943. He received the commission to create the 8-by-20-foot (2.4 by 6.1 m) Mural (1943) for the entry to her new townhouse. At the suggestion of her friend and advisor Marcel Duchamp, Pollock painted the work on canvas, rather than the wall, so that it would be portable. After seeing the big mural, the art critic Clement Greenberg wrote: "I took one look at it and I thought, 'Now that's great art,' and I knew Jackson was the greatest painter this country had produced." The catalog introducing his first exhibition described Pollock's talent as "volcanic. It has fire. It is unpredictable. It is undisciplined. It spills out of itself in a mineral prodigality, not yet crystallized."
What influences did Pollock have on his art?
Pollock's tough and unsettled early life growing up in the American West shaped him into the bullish character he would become. Later, a series of influences came together to guide Pollock to his mature style: years spent painting realist murals in the 1930s showed him the power of painting on a large scale; Surrealism suggested ways to describe the unconscious; and Cubism guided his understanding of picture space.
What is Pollock's painting technique?
Mural (1943) Mural is an early tour de force in Pollock's career, a transition between his easel paintings and his signature drip canvases. This 'all over' painting technique was assimilated from a variety of sources: Picasso, Benton and Siqueiros, as well as Native American sand painting.
What was Pollock's style in the 1950s?
The 1950s saw considerable changes in both Pollock's work and personal life. He began avoiding color in 1951, and started painting exclusively in black, though with alcoholism taking over his life, his productivity steadily declined. The Deep evokes a chasm - an abyss either to be avoided or to get lost inside. White paint was built up with layered brush strokes, showing a return of Pollock's direct involvement with the canvas. Drips are still evident, now creating a web that floats above the chasm. Pollock was clearly looking for a new approach, an image to create, desperate to break away from his signature style, yet his last paintings represent neither a new beginning nor a conclusion.
What is the blue pole in Pollock's painting?
Blue Poles, or Number 11, 1952, contains shoe and footprints and even shards of glass embedded in canvas - telling traces of Pollock's vigorous working methods and turbulent life. During the period he painted Blue Poles he was drinking in binges, though Krasner has stated that the painting took a great deal of time and was not the spontaneous result of a drunken fury. It is possible that he employed the blue lines to unite disparate parts of the large picture. Frank O'Hara commented, "The poles are an unusually definite form in the 'all-over' configuration of Pollock's poured paintings and various figurative connotations have been attributed to them - from totems to the swaying masts of tall ships."
How big is Pollock's painting?
Measuring nearly 8 x 20 ft, this was Pollock's first large-scale work, and was commissioned for Peggy Guggenheim's apartment. Although influenced by his earlier work in this format, Pollock struggled to control the composition.
What is Pollock's greatest achievement?
Pollock's greatness lies in developing one of the most radical abstract styles in the history of modern art, detaching line from color, redefining the categories of drawing and painting, and finding new means to describe pictorial space.
What is Pollock's pre-eminence among the Abstract Expressionists?
New York's critics certainly thought so, and Pollock's pre-eminence among the Abstract Expressionists has endured, cemented by the legend of his alcoholism and his early death. The famous 'drip paintings' that he began to produce in the late 1940s represent one of the most original bodies of work of the century.
What is Jackson Pollock's art movement?
Jackson Pollock was an American painter who was a leading exponent of Abstract Expressionism, an art movement characterized by the free-associative gestures in paint sometimes referred to as “ action painting .”
What is Jackson Pollock best known for?
Jackson Pollock is best known for his action paintings and Abstract Expressionist works. For these pieces, many made during his “poured” period, Pollock dripped paint onto canvas to convey the emotion of movement. He explored themes including surrealist navigation of the unconscious and Jungian symbolism. His early work depicts landscapes and figures with surrealist elements.
What was Pollock's treatment for?
In 1937 Pollock began psychiatric treatment for alcoholism, and he suffered a nervous breakdown in 1938, which caused him to be institutionalized for about four months. After these experiences, his work became semiabstract and showed the assimilation of motifs from the modern Spanish artists Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró, as well as the Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco. Jungian symbolism and the Surrealist exploration of the unconscious also influenced his works of this period; indeed, from 1939 through 1941 he was in treatment with two successive Jungian psychoanalysts who used Pollock’s own drawings in the therapy sessions. Characteristic paintings from this period include Bird (c. 1941), Male and Female (c. 1942), and Guardians of the Secret (1943).
How did Jackson Pollock die?
Jackson Pollock died in a car crash in the summer of 1956 at age 44. He was driving under the influence of alcohol and was killed after he was thrown from the vehicle. His lover, artist Ruth Kligman, was the only survivor of the accident.
What was Pollock's job?
Pollock was employed by the WPA Federal Art Project in the fall of 1935 as an easel painter. This position gave him economic security during the remaining years of the Great Depression as well as an opportunity to develop his art. From his years with Benton through 1938, Pollock’s work was strongly influenced by the compositional methods and regionalist subject matter of his teacher and by the poetically expressionist vision of the American painter Albert Pinkham Ryder. It consisted mostly of small landscapes and figurative scenes such as Going West (1934–35), in which Pollock utilized motifs derived from photographs of his birthplace at Cody.
What was Pollock's job during the Great Depression?
Pollock was employed by the WPA Federal Art Project in the fall of 1935 as an easel painter. This position gave him economic security during the remaining years of the Great Depression as well as an opportunity to develop his art.
Who was Pollock married to?
In 1945 Pollock married the painter Lee Krasner and moved to East Hampton, on the southern shore of Long Island, New York. Krasner, whom Pollock respected as an artist, had already proven her ability to handle his affairs with Guggenheim. She also provided a stabilizing factor that he sorely needed, given his drinking and social awkwardness.
What was Pollock's first drip painting?
Composition with Pouring II has been cited as one of Pollock’s first drip paintings in which he poured and dripped house paint directly from cans. Examination coupled with pigment and medium analysis has shown otherwise. In fact, Pollock executed much of this work in a traditional manner, by brushing swirls of yellow, blue, red, green, and gray artists’ tube paints onto a pre-primed canvas that was already mounted to a stretcher. The pigments in these paints are all relatively pure and reflect an artists’ palette, indicating that Pollock was using good quality tube paints. A paint sample taken from the edge of the painting and examined in cross-section under a microscope shows a clear division between the three paint layers applied over the white lead ground. The well-defined and progressive layering of these colors demonstrates that the artist allowed time while he was executing this work for one layer to dry before the next was applied. Only the glossy dripped black, one of the last paints applied, is definitely house paint. Based on drip patterns, these skeins of thick, glossy paint were applied with the painting laid flat, foreshadowing the technique that would come to dominate Pollock’s later paintings.
What kind of paint did Pollock use?
With few exceptions, the paints in Number 3 have all been identified as oil-modified alkyd paints , relatively newly developed synthetic resin-based paints marketed for coating interior and exterior architectural structures. Pollock never spoke specifically about his paints other than to say that he preferred a “liquid, flowing kind of paint.” And, while acknowledging that he worked spontaneously with admitted chance effects, he asserted that he maintained control while making his drip paintings. This study of just two paintings shows the shift in Pollock’s use of materials, from his reliance on artists’ oil paints in 1943 to the predominance of commercial paints in his work by 1949. As his method of working was evolving and as he developed his dripped paintings, the new synthetic paints seem to have met the criteria he was seeking.
What was Pollock's last house paint?
Only the glossy dripped black, one of the last paints applied, is definitely house paint. Based on drip patterns, these skeins of thick, glossy paint were applied with the painting laid flat, foreshadowing the technique that would come to dominate Pollock’s later paintings.
What year did Jackson Pollock paint Tiger?
Sign up. These two paintings by Jackson Pollock, Composition with Pouring II, 1943 (left), and Number 3, 1949: Tiger, 1949 (right), have been studied to gain a better understanding of the paints that Pollock used as he developed his drip paintings, the body of work for which he is best known.
What color was Pollock's painting Tiger?
With the unstretched fabric spread out on the studio floor, the artist dribbled, dripped, and poured colored paints in orange, silver, yellow, green, white, and black onto the fabric sometimes straight ...
What colors did Pollock paint?
In fact, Pollock executed much of this work in a traditional manner, by brushing swirls of yellow, blue, red, green, and gray artists’ tube paints onto a pre-primed canvas that was already mounted to a stretcher.
When did Pollock use commercial paint?
This study of just two paintings shows the shift in Pollock’s use of materials, from his reliance on artists’ oil paints in 1943 to the predominance of commercial paints in his work by 1949 .
Who was the painter who saw Pollock's paintings?
Around this time, Peggy Guggenheim began expressing interest in Pollock's paintings. During a meeting she had with the painter Pete Norman, he saw some of Pollock’s paintings lying on the floor and commented that Pollock’s art was possibly the most original American art he had seen.
When was Pollock's most famous painting made?
Pollock's most famous paintings were made during this "drip period" between 1947 and 1950. He became wildly popular after being featured in a four-page spread, on August 8, 1949, in Life magazine. The article asked of Pollock, "Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?".
Who Was Jackson Pollock?
Artist Jackson Pollock studied under Thomas Hart Benton before leaving traditional techniques to explore abstraction expressionism via his splatter and action pieces, which involved pouring paint and other media directly onto canvases. Pollock was both renowned and critiqued for his conventions. He died after driving drunk and crashing into a tree in New York in 1956, at age 44.
Why did Pollock leave school?
He was expelled twice before abandoning school for his creative pursuits. In 1930, at age 18, Pollock moved to New York City to live with his brother, Charles. He soon began studying with Charles's art teacher, representational regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton, at the Art Students League.
Why did Krasner call Pollock's mother?
Concerned for Pollock's well-being, Krasner called on Pollock's mother to help. Her presence helped to stabilize Pollock, and he began to paint again. He completed his masterpiece, The Deep, during this period. But as the demand from collectors for Pollock's art grew, so too did the pressure he felt, and with it his alcoholism.
How much was Pollock Krasner's estate worth when she died?
When Krasner died on June 19, 1984, the estate was worth $20 million.
What color was Pollock's art?
Pollock's art also became darker in color. He abandoned the "drip" method and began painting in black and white, which proved unsuccessful. Depressed and haunted, Pollock would frequently meet his friends at the nearby Cedar Bar, drinking until it closed and getting into violent fights.
Why did Pollock reduce his paintings to numbers?
In his later paintings, Pollock reduced the titles of all of his paintings to numbers, in order to reduce the viewers attempt to indentify any representational element in his paintings. Pressured by his growing fame and demand from art collectors, Pollock’s alcoholism worsened.
When did Pollock use liquid paint?
Pollock was introduced to the use of liquid paint in 1936 at an experimental workshop in New York City by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. He later used paint pouring as one of several techniques on canvases of the early 1940s, such as Male and Female and Composition with Pouring I.
What is Pollock known for?
He was well known for his unique style of drip painting. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety; he was a major artist of his generation. Regarded as reclusive, he had a volatile personality, and struggled with alcoholism for most of his life.
Why did Pollock move to New York?
As he was gaining professional and social success, Pollock fought the addiction of alcoholism and recurring bouts of depression.
How did Pollock die?
Pollock died at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related single-car accident when he was driving . In December 1956, four months after his death, Pollock was given a memorial retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. A larger, more comprehensive exhibition of his work was held there in 1967. In 1998 and 1999, his work was honored with large-scale retrospective exhibitions at MoMA and at The Tate in London.
What was Jack the Dripper's style?
In 1956, Time magazine gave Pollock the name “Jack the Dripper,” referencing his unique style of action painting.
Where did Pollock go to high school?
While living in Echo Park, California, he enrolled at Los Angeles' Manual Arts High School, from which he was expelled. He had already been expelled in 1928 from another high school. During his early life, Pollock explored Native American culture while on surveying trips with his father.

Overview
Career (1936–1954)
Pollock was introduced to the use of liquid paint in 1936 at an experimental workshop in New York City by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. He later used paint pouring as one of several techniques on canvases of the early 1940s, such as Male and Female and Composition with Pouring I. After his move to Springs, New York, he began painting with his canvases laid out on the studio floor and he developed what was later called his "drip" technique.
Early life (1912–1936)
Paul Jackson Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming, in 1912, the youngest of five brothers. His parents, Stella May (née McClure) and LeRoy Pollock, were born and grew up in Tingley, Iowa, and were educated at Tingley High School. Pollock's mother is interred at Tingley Cemetery, Ringgold County, Iowa. His father had been born with the surname McCoy, but took the surname of his adoptive parents, neighbors who adopted him after his own parents had died within a year of ea…
Relationship with Lee Krasner
The two artists met while they both exhibited at the McMillen Gallery in 1942. Krasner was unfamiliar yet intrigued with Pollock's work and went to his apartment, unannounced, to meet him following the gallery exhibition. In October 1945, Pollock and Lee Krasner were married in a church with two witnesses present for the event. In November, they moved out of the city to the
Later years and death (1955–1956)
In 1955, Pollock painted Scent and Search, his last two paintings. He did not paint at all in 1956, but was making sculptures at Tony Smith's home: constructions of wire, gauze, and plaster. Shaped by sand-casting, they have heavily textured surfaces similar to what Pollock often created in his paintings.
Pollock and Krasner's relationship began to crumble by 1956, owing to Pollock'…
Artistry
The work of Thomas Hart Benton, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró influenced Pollock. Pollock started using synthetic resin-based paints called alkyd enamels, which at that time was a novel medium. Pollock described this use of household paints, instead of artist's paints, as "a natural growth out of a need". He used hardened brushes, sticks, and even basting syringes as paint applicators. Pollock's technique of pouring and dripping paint is thought to be one of the origins of the term a…
Legacy
Pollock's staining into raw canvas was adapted by the Color Field painters Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis. Frank Stella made "all-over composition" a hallmark of his works of the 1960s. The Happenings artist Allan Kaprow, sculptors Richard Serra and Eva Hesse, and many contemporary artists have retained Pollock's emphasis on the process of creation; they were influenced by his approach to the process, rather than the look of his work.
Authenticity issues
The Pollock-Krasner Authentication Board was created by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 1990 to evaluate newly found works for an upcoming supplement to the 1978 catalogue. In the past, however, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation has declined to be involved in authentication cases.
In 2006, a documentary, Who the *$&% Is Jackson Pollock?, was made concerning Teri Horton, a truck driver who bought an abstract painting for five dollars at a thrift store in California in 1992. …