Jackson Pollock

Paul Jackson Pollock (/ˈpɒlək/ Cody, Wyoming; January 1912-Springs, New York, August 11, 1956), better known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and leading artist of abstract expressionism. Pollock achieved recognition for his style of dripping paint (dripping).

He was the author of 400 paintings and around 500 drawings. In 1945 he married the American artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and his legacy.Pollock was an isolated person with a volatile personality. He suffered from serious alcoholism problems that he dealt with throughout his life, which led to his death in a drunk driving car accident at the age of 44.

In 2000, a film based on his life, titled Pollock, directed by and starring Ed Harris, won an Academy Award.

Biography

Early years (1912-1930)

Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming in 1912, the youngest of five children. His parents, Stella May McClure and LeRoy Pollock, were from Tingley, Iowa. His father was born with the last name McCoy but took the last name of his adoptive parents. The Pollocks were neighbors to the McCoy family and adopted LeRoy after his parents died. Stella and LeRoy were Presbyterian and of Irish and Scotch-Irish descent respectively.LeRoy Pollock was initially a farmer and later worked as a surveyor for the government, moving with his family as the work required.Jackson grew up in Arizona and Chico, California.

While living in Echo Park, Los Angeles, Pollock enrolled in Los Angeles High School for the Manual Arts, but was expelled from it; Pollock had already been expelled from another high school in 1928. During the early years of his life, Pollock explored the culture of the Native Americans of the United States while accompanying his father on his travels.

New York and artistic beginnings (1930-1940)

In 1930 (following in the footsteps of his older brother Charles Pollock) he moved to New York where he studied with his brother and under painter Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League of New York. Benton's conversations about rural America had little influence on Pollock, however his rhythmic use of paint and fierce independence marked the artist. From 1938 to 1942, during the Great Depression, Pollock worked for the Federal Art Project Works Progress Administration.

Trying to deal with his alcoholism problem, Pollock underwent Jungian psychotherapy with Dr. Joseph L. Henderson between 1938 and 1941 and later with Dr. Violet Staub de Laszlo in 1941-1942. Henderson hooked him through his art, encouraging him to draw pictures. Jungian concepts and archetypes were expressed in his paintings.Recently, some historians have suggested that Pollock may have suffered from bipolar disorder.

Mural and move to Springs (1940-1947)

Pollock signed a contract with Peggy Guggenheim in July 1943. He was commissioned to create the work Mural (1943), measuring 2.43 x 6.04 m, for the entrance to the new home of Guggenheim. At the suggestion of his friend and adviser Marcel Duchamp, Pollock painted this work on canvas instead of the wall to make the work portable. After viewing the mural, art critic Clement Greenberg wrote: "I took one look at it and thought, 'this is some extraordinary art'; and I knew that Jackson was the greatest painter this country has produced".

Action Painting Period (1947-1952)

In October 1945, Pollock married American painter Lee Krasner and in November they moved outside the city to Springs, New York in the east Hampton area on the south shore of Long Island. With the help of a loan from Peggy Guggenheim, they were able to buy a house with a wooden barn at 830 Springs Fireplace Street. Pollock turned the barn into his own studio, and in that space he perfected his technique of painting large "splatters," with which he would become permanently identified.

Pollock was introduced to the use of liquid paint in 1946 in an experimental seminar given by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. Later, he used paint pouring as one of several techniques on canvases from the early 1940s such as Macho y Hembra and Poured Composition I . After moving to Springs, he began painting with canvases lying on the studio floor and developed his technique of splattering paint.

He began to use paints based on a new synthetic resin called alkyd varnish. Pollock described these paints as more than just a work tool, & # 34; a natural result out of necessity & # 34;.He used hardened brushes, rods, and syringes to apply the paint. Pollock's technique of pouring and spattering paint is recognized as one of the origins of action painting. With this technique, Pollock achieved an immediate means of creating art: paint literally flowed from the tool of his choice onto the canvas. By challenging the conventions of painting on a vertical surface, he added a new dimension by being able to see and apply paint to his canvases from all directions.

A possible influence on Pollock's work was the work of Ukrainian-American artist Janet Sobel (1894-1968) (originally Jennie Lechovsky). Peggy Guggenheim included Sobel's work in her Gallery, "The Art of this Century" in 1945. Along with Jackson Pollock, critic Clement Greenberg saw Sobel's work at the gallery in 1946. In his essay "American-Type Painting"; ("American-Type Paintings"), Greenberg noted that these works were the first "all over" (full surface coverage) that he had seen and said that "Pollock admitted that those paintings had made an impression on him".

While painting in this manner, Pollock moved away from figurative representation and challenged the Western tradition of using easel and brushes. To paint he used the strength of his entire body, which was expressed in his canvases. In 1956 Time magazine dubbed Pollock "Jack the Splasher" ( & # 34; Jack the Dripper & # 34; , in reference to Jack The Ripper) a famous serial killer from the United Kingdom, due to his painting technique. About this Pollock said:

"My paintings don't come from a cavalry. I prefer to attach the new canvas to a wall or on the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the ground I feel more calm. I feel closer, more part of the painting, as in this way I can walk around it, work from four sides and literally "being" in the painting.

I continue to move away from the traditional tools of painters such as cavalettes, pallets and brushes, etc. I prefer wands, garden blades, knives and diluted or impasse paint with sand, broken glass or any other material added.

When I am "in" my painting, I am not aware of what I am doing. Just after a period of "aclimate" I realize what happened. I am not afraid to make changes, destroy the image, etc., because the painting has its own life. I'm trying to let her out. It's only when I lose contact with painting when the result is a disaster. Otherwise it is pure harmony, a simple to give and receive, and painting is good. "

Pollock observed samples of Navajo sand painting in the 1940s and referring to this style of sand painting, Pollock stated:

I feel closer, more part of the painting, as in this way I can walk around it, work from four sides and be literally in the painting. This is proper to the methods of sand painting of the West Indians.

Other influences on his splash technique come from the Mexican muralists and surrealist automatism. Pollock refused to trust "accidents," he usually had an idea of how he wanted each particular work to look. His technique combined the movement of his body, which he could control, with the viscous flow of the paint, the force of gravity, and the canvas. It was a mix of controllable and uncontrollable factors. Throwing, splashing, pouring and dripping, Pollock moved energetically around the canvas like a dance and didn't stop until he saw what he wanted to see.

Pollock Studio in Springs, New York

In 1950, Hans Namuth, a young photographer, wanted to take photos of Jackson painting (moving and still). Pollock promised to start a new painting especially for the photo shoot, but when Namuth had arrived Pollock had to apologize as he had already finished the painting.

Namuth, when he entered Pollock's study, said:

A fresh canvas covered the whole floor... there was absolute silence... Pollock looked at his painting. Then, unexpectedly, he took a paint can and a brush and began to move around the canvas. It was like he suddenly realized that the painting was not finished. His movements, slow at first, gradually became faster as he threw black, white and red paint on the canvas. He completely forgot that Lee and I were present; he seemed not to hear the camera shots... my photo shoot lasted until he finished painting, more or less hour and a half. All that time Pollock didn't stop. How could one follow the step to this level of activity? He finally said, "he's done." Pollock's best paintings... reveal that his lines "all over" do not give rise to positive or negative areas: it does not make us feel that a part of the canvas demands to be translated as a figure, neither abstract or representative, against another part of the canvas translated as soil. There's no inside or outside on the Pollock line or in the space in which it moves... Pollock managed to free his line from representing objects in the world, and also from his task of describing or containing forms or figures, whether abstract or representative, on the surface of the canvas.

Karmel, 132

In the 21st century, physicists Richard Taylor, Adam Micolich, and David Jonas studied the works and techniques of Pollock and stated that some works display properties of mathematical fractals. Furthermore, they claimed that their works increase in fractal qualities as Pollock progressed in his career. The authors speculate that Pollock may have had an insight into the nature of motions from the Theory of chaos and tried to express that mathematical chaos, more than ten years before the proposal of this theory. His work was used to try to assess the authenticity of some works claimed to be Pollocks.

Other contemporary scholars have suggested that Pollock may have tried to imitate theories of that time to give his paintings a certain depth that had never been seen in art before.

Last years and Death (1952-1956)

Pollock's most famous paintings were made during the "Drip Period" between 1947 and 1952. He rose rapidly to fame after a 1949 four-page article in Life magazine, in which he asked the question "Is he the man? America's Greatest Living Painter?". At the peak of his fame Pollock abruptly abandoned his dribbling style.

After 1951, Pollock's work was darker in color, such as his collection painted in black on unbleached canvas. Later, he returned to using color and re-introduced figurative elements.During this period, Pollock moved to a more commercial gallery as there was much demand for his work from collectors. In response to this pressure, coupled with personal frustrations, his drinking problem deepened.

Jackson Pollock's tomb with Lee Krasner's tomb in front of the Green River Cemetery

In 1955, Pollock made his last two paintings, Aroma and Search. The artist did not paint anything in 1956, but was making sculptures out of wire, gauze, and plaster in the home of sculptor Tony Smith. Formed using the sand cast method, they had highly textured surfaces, similar to what Pollock created in his paintings.

On August 11, 1956, at 10:15 p.m., Pollock was killed in a car accident in his Oldsmobile convertible while driving under the influence of alcohol. Edith Metzger, one of the passengers, also died in the accident. The other passenger, Ruth Kligman, an artist and Pollock's lover, survived the crash.

For the rest of his life, the widow Lee Krasner handled the artist's affairs and ensured that Pollock's reputation remained strong despite changing trends in the art world. The couple is buried at Green River Cemetery in Springs, with a large headstone marking Pollock's grave and a smaller one marking hers.

From naming to numbering

In an effort to avoid the viewer's search for figurative elements, Pollock abandoned titles and began numbering his works. What he said about it was: & # 34; ... look passively and try to receive what the painting offers you and do not bring up themes or preconceived ideas of what you should be looking for & # 34;. Pollock's wife, Lee Krasner, said he's used to give his paintings conventional names... but now he just numbered them. The numbers are neutral. They make people see painting for what it is, pure painting".

Legacy

The Pollock-Krasner House and Studio is owned by the Stony Brooks Foundation, a non-profit affiliate of Stony Brook University.

A separate organization, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, was established in 1985. The foundation serves as the official estate of Pollock and his widow Lee Krasner, but also, under the terms of Krasner's will, "A< i>assists deserving artists who work individually and need financial support". The United States copyright representative for the Pollock-Krasner Foundation is the Artists Rights Society (ARS).

Lee Krasner donated the artist's papers in 1983 to the Archives of American Art. They were later archived with the Lee Krasner papers. The Archives of American Art also holds the Charles Pollock papers, which include correspondence, photographs and other files relating to his brother Jackson Pollock.

In December 1956, four months after his death, Pollock was commemorated with a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA). In 1967 a more complete exhibition of his work was organized in the same place. Between 1998 and 1999, his work was honored with a large-scale retrospective at the MoMA in New York and at the Tate Modern in London.

Authenticity issues

The Pollock-Krasner Authentication Committee was created by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 1990 to evaluate recently found works for a supplement to the 1978 catalogue. However, on previous occasions, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation refused get involved in authentication cases.

In 2003, 24 Pollock-like paintings and drawings were found inside a locker in Wainscott, New York. An inconclusive debate continues as to whether or not they are original Pollocks. This would require a geometric consistency analysis of Pollock's splatters at the microscopic level, to then be compared with the finding that the patterns in Pollock's paintings became more complex over time. Researcher analyzes of the paintings from Harvard University showed the presence of a synthetic pigment patented in 1980 among other materials that were not available at the time of Jackson Pollock. In 2007, a traveling museum was set up with an exhibition of these paintings and was accompanied by the book Pollock Matters, written by Ellen G. Landau, one of four experts on the Pollock-Krasner Foundation's authentication panel since 1990 and Claude Cernuschi, a specialist in Abstract Expressionism. In the book, Ellen Landau demonstrates all the connections that exist between the family that owns the paintings and the life of Jackson Pollock in order to place the paintings in their proper historical context. Landau also presents forensic findings from Harvard University and presents possible explanations for the inconsistencies found in the 24 paintings.

In 2006, the documentary Who the Hell Is Jackson Pollock? was based on the figure of Teri Horton, a trucker who in 1992 bought an abstract painting for $5 at a thrift store hand in california This work could be a Pollock, however its authenticity continues to be debated.

Untitled 1950, which was sold by New York's Knoedler Gallery in 2007 for $17 million to Pierre Lagrange, a London billionaire, has been subject to authenticity testing by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Although it was made in the classic drip and splash style and signed “J. Pollock,” the modestly sized painting (15 by 28 inches) contained yellow pigments that were not commercially available until 1970. The lawsuit was closed following a confidential settlement in 2012.

In popular culture and the media

• In 1960, the album by Ornette Coleman Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation I had Pollock's cover.

• Pollock influenced the British band The Stone Roses: the covers are made from pieces of their works.

• In the video "Innuendo" of the British band Queen's homonymous album, there are 4 members with different styles of painting, and it is Roger Taylor who is "drawn" in the style of Pollock.

• In the early 1990s, three film groups were developing biographical projects of Pollock, each based on a different source. The project that seemed more advanced was a teamwork between Barwood Films by Barbra Streisand and TriBeCa Productions by Robert De Niro (De Niro's parents were friends with Krasner and Pollock). Christopher Cleveland's script was to be based on Jeffrey Potter's 1985 oral biography: To Violent Gravea collection of memories of Pollock's friends. Streisand was going to act on Lee Krasner's role, and De Niro in Pollock's.

• The second was going to be based on Love Affair (1974), a book of memories written by Ruth Kligman, Pollock's lover. This was to be led by Harold Becker, with Al Pacino on the role of Pollock.

• In 2000, the biographical film was released Pollock, based on biography Jackson Pollock: An American Saga, Pulitzer Prize winner. Marcia Gay Harden won the Oscar for the best cast actress for her performance by Lee Krasner. The film was the project of Ed Harris, who starred Pollock in addition to directing the film. He was nominated to the Oscar for the best actor. The Pollock-Krasner Foundation did not authorize or collaborate with anything in production.

• In September 2009, art historian Henry Adams declared in the magazine Smithsonian that Pollock had written his name in the famous painting Mural (1943), therefore, the painting is insured at $140 million. In 2011, the Republican Representative of the State of Iowa Scott Raecker introduced a bill to force the sale of sheltered painting at the University of Iowa to fund scholarships, but his bill created so much controversy that it was quickly dismissed.

• In 2012 the film Contrabando of the filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur was launched. It shows a Pollock canvas, valued at USD 120 000 000 dollars, during the robbery of a stock conveyor.

• In the movie The Accountant is an abstract of the author, in possession of the character Karl Wolff, as an amendment of payment. And worship of personal worship by him towards the painter.

• In the chapter "Daria Dance Party" ("Daria de Rumba" in Latin America) of the animated series Daria, Quinn organizes a dance and hires Jane to decorate the school gym. In addition to using the same technique in the decoration, it is mentioned that it is a tribute to Jackson Pollock in one of the posters.

Critical discussion

Pollock's work has been the subject of several critical debates. Critic Robert Coates described Pollock's works as "disorganized explosions of random energy, and therefore meaningless"."

In a famous article published in 1952 in ARTnews, Harold Rosenberg used the term "action painting" (action painting), writing that «what should be on the canvas was not an image, but an event. The big moment came when he decided to paint 'just for the sake of painting'. The gesture of the canvas was the liberation of value, aesthetics, morality». Many people assume that he based his paradigm of "action painting" on his own. in Pollock.

Clement Greenberg supported Pollock's work on formalist grounds. He fit his vision of art history as a progressive purification of form and removal of historical context. He considered Pollock's works to be the best paintings to date and the culmination of the Western tradition through Cubism and Cézanne to Manet.

Reynold's News said in a 1959 headline, "This is not art, this is a bad joke".

The Congress for Cultural Freedom, a CIA-backed organization dedicated to promoting American culture and values, sponsored exhibits of Pollock's work. Some left-wing academics, notably Eva Cockcroft, have argued that the United States government and wealthy elite supported Pollock and Abstract Expressionism in order to place the country at the forefront of globalized art and devalue Social Realism. Cockcroft wrote that Pollock it had become a "weapon of the Cold War".

Works

• (1942) Male and Female Philadelphia Museum of Art
• (1942) Stenographic Figure Museum of Modern Art
• (1943) Mural University of Iowa Museum of Art.
• (1943) Moon-Woman Cuts the Circle
• (1943) The She-Wolf Museum of Modern Art, New York
• (1943) Guardians of the Secret
• Blue (Moby Dick) Ohara Museum of Art
• (1945) Troubled Queen Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• (1946) Eyes in the Heat Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
• (1946) The KeyThe Sounds In The Grass Museum of Modern Art.
• (1947) Portrait of H.M. University of Iowa Museum of Art.
• (1947) Full Fathom Five Museum of Modern Art
• (1947) Cathedral
• (1947) Enchanted Forest, Peggy Guggenheim Collection
• (1947) Lucifer, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• (1948) Painting
• (1948) Number 5 (4 ft x 8 ft) Private collection
• (1948) Number 8
• (1948) Composition (White, Black, Blue and Red on White) New Orleans Museum of Art
• (1948) Number 19
• (1948) Summertime: Number 9A Tate Modern
• (1949) Number 1 Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
• (1949) Number 3
• (1949) Number 10 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• (1950) Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist) National Gallery of Art
• (1950) Mural on indian red ground, 1950 Tehran's Museum of Contemporary Art (TMOCA)
• (1950) Number 29, 1950 National Gallery of Canada
• (1950) One: Number 31, 1950 Museum of Modern Art
• (1950) No. 32
• (1951) Number 7 National Gallery of Art
• (1951) Black fake White
• (1951) Brown and silver I Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
• (1952) Convergence Albright-Knox Art Gallery
• (1952) Blue Poles: No. 11, 1952 National Gallery of Australia
• (1953) Portrait and a Dream Dallas Museum of Art
• (1953) Easter and the Totem The Museum of Modern Art
• (1953) Ocean Greyness, Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
• (1953) The Deep, Musée National d'Art Modern, Paris.

The Art Market

In 1973, Postes Azules (Blue Poles: Number 11 in English), was purchased by the Australian government (Gough Whitlam) for the National Gallery of Australia for 2 million dollars (1.3 million per year). time to pay). At the time, it was the highest price ever paid for a piece of modern art. The painting is now one of the most popular exhibits at the gallery. The first time the painting was shown in the United States since its purchase was at a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1998, where it was the centerpiece. of said exhibition.

In November 2006, Pollock's work, No. 5, 1948 became the most expensive painting in the world when it was sold privately to an anonymous buyer for $140 million. Another record was set for the artist in 2004, when No. 12 (1949), a "drip" a medium-sized painting that had been exhibited in the United States pavilion at the Venice Biennale sold for $11.7 million at Christie's, New York. In 2012, No. 28 (1951), one of the paintings where the artist combines dripping brushstrokes in shades of grey/silver with splashes of red, yellow, blue and white, was sold at Christie's in New York for 20.5 million dollars (23 million with additional charges) having estimated its value between 20 and 30 million dollars.

In 2013 the painting No. 19 (1948) was sold by Christie's for $58,363,750 million during an auction that achieved $495 million in overnight sales. Christie's reported that it was their current record as the most expensive auction of contemporary art.

Pollock's influence

Pollock's technique of painting on a raw canvas was adopted by color field painters such as Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis. Frank Stella used the composition all-over (& # 34; everywhere & # 34;) as his hallmark in all his works of the sixties. The artist of the happenings, Allan Kaprow, the sculptors Richard Serra, Eva Hesse and many other contemporary artists have retained Pollock's emphasis on the process of creation; they were influenced by his approach to the process, not so much by the physical aspect of the work.