A PIONEER OF ABSTRACT

EXPRESSIONISM: JACKSON POLLOCK

By: Derek Walkama

American post-WWII art movement

paintings often made of shapes, lines, and forms not meant to

depict a "reality”

What is Abstract Expressionism?

Some Examples

Mark Rothko Helen Frankenthaler

Childhood and Adolescence Born Paul Jackson Pollock January 28,

1912 in Cody, Wyoming Father was a farmer and mother was an

artist Older brother took over as father figure

when father left, and also aided in Jackson’s artistic ambition

Started studying with Thomas Benton

The Great Depression Franklin D. Roosevelt started Public

Works of Art Program Program resulted in thousands of works

of contemporary art Pollock discovered Pablo Picasso's

show at the Museum of Modern Art

Love and Work Pollock became romantically involved in

1942 with a Jewish contemporary artist, Lee Krasner

Pollock was contracted by Peggy Guggenheim

Moved into a farmhouse on Long Island and converted barn into private studio

Continued to develop his “drip” technique

Drip Drip Drip Between 1947 and 1950 Pollock

produced some of his most famous paintings using his “drip technique”

Pollock became dismissive of other artists because of his overwhelming and swiftly achieved fame

He began numbering his paintings instead of giving them names

Number 4, 1950

Mommy to the Rescue Pollock gave up on his drip method and

began painting in black and white which proved unsuccessful

Depressed, Pollock began frequenting the bar where we he would fall into a drunken rage and start fights

Krasner, concerned for her husband, called upon mama Pollock to help her son out of the gutter

The Deep,1953

The End of Pollock Pollock’s marriage began to crumble

under the stress of his alcoholism He quit painting in 1956 Krasner, reluctantly, left for Paris to give

Jackson space Pollock, who had been drinking, crashed

his car killing himself and one of the passengers in 1956

Legacy Although the last years of Pollock’s life

were gloomy, he still remains one of the most influential artists of the 20th century

His art has continued to be honored on a large scale with frequent exhibitions at both the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Tate in London

Mural, 1943

The She Wolf, 1943

Number 1, 1948

One: Number 31, 1950