Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the
abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his "
drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a horizontal surface, enabling him to view and paint his canvases from all angles. It was called
all-over painting and
action painting, since he covered the entire canvas and used the force of his whole body to paint, often in a frenetic dancing style. This extreme form of abstraction divided the critics: some praised the immediacy of the creation, while others derided the random effects. In 2016, Pollock's painting titled ''
Number 17A
''Number 17A'' is an abstract expressionist painting by Jackson Pollock. It is owned by hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin, who purchased it in September 2015 from David Geffen for $200 million, a then record-breaking price, at which time it w ...
'' 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. Pollock died at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related single-car collision when he was driving. In December 1956, four months after his death, Pollock was given a memorial
retrospective
A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...
exhibition at the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting 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.
[Horsley, Carter B., ''Mud Pies, Jackson Pollock, Museum of Modern Art, November 1, 1998 to February 2, 1999, The Tate Gallery, London, March 11 to June 6, 1999'']
"While it is de rigueur to concentrate on the signature works that define an artist's 'style', it is very important to understand its evolution..."
/ref>
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 each other. Stella and LeRoy Pollock were Presbyterian; they were of Irish and Scots-Irish descent, respectively. LeRoy Pollock was a farmer and later a land surveyor for the government, moving for different jobs. Stella, proud of her family's heritage as weavers, made and sold dresses as a teenager. In November 1912, Stella took her sons to San Diego; Jackson was just 10 months old and would never return to Cody. He subsequently grew up in Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...
and Chico, California.
While living in the Vermont Square
Vermont Square is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, within the South Los Angeles region. The Vermont Square Branch library, a designated Historic–Cultural Monument, is located in the community.
Geography
The name "Vermont Square" wa ...
neighborhood of Los Angeles, he enrolled at 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. He was also heavily influenced by Mexican muralists, particularly José Clemente Orozco
José Clemente Orozco (November 23, 1883 – September 7, 1949) was a Mexican caricaturist and painter, who specialized in political murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Sique ...
, whose fresco '' Prometheus'' he would later call "the greatest painting in North America".
In 1930, following his older brother Charles Pollock, he moved to New York City, where they both studied under Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League. Benton's rural American subject matter had little influence on Pollock's work, but his rhythmic use of paint and his fierce independence were more lasting. In the early 1930s, Pollock spent a summer touring the Western United States together with Glen Rounds, a fellow art student, and Benton, their teacher.
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.
From 1938 to 1942 Pollock worked for the WPA
WPA may refer to:
Computing
*Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard
*Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing
*Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada
* Windows Performance Ana ...
Federal Art Project. During this time Pollock was trying to deal with his established alcoholism; from 1938 through 1941 he underwent Jungian psychotherapy
Analytical psychology ( de , Analytische Psychologie, sometimes translated as analytic psychology and referred to as Jungian analysis) is a term coined by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, to describe research into his new "empirical science" ...
with Dr. Joseph L. Henderson
Joseph Lewis Henderson (August 31, 1903 – November 17, 2007) was an American physician and a Analytical psychology, Jungian psychologist. Called by some the “Dean of American analytical psychologists", he was a co-founder of the C.G. Jung Ins ...
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 '' 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."
Drip period
Pollock's most famous paintings were made during the "drip period" between 1947 and 1950. He became famous following an August 8, 1949, four-page spread in ''Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...
'' magazine that asked, "Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?" Thanks to the mediation of Alfonso Ossorio
Alfonso Angel Yangco Ossorio (August 2, 1916 – December 5, 1990) was a Filipino American Abstract expressionism, abstract expressionist artist who was born in Manila in 1916 to wealthy Filipino parents from the province of Negros Occidental. H ...
, a close friend of Pollock, and the art historian Michel Tapié, the young gallery owner Paul Facchetti
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
*Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
* Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...
, from March 7, 1952, managed to realize the first exhibition of Pollock's works from 1948 to 1951 in his Studio Paul Facchetti in Paris and in Europe. At the peak of his fame, Pollock abruptly abandoned the drip style. Pollock's drip paintings were influenced by the artist Janet Sobel; the art critic Clement Greenberg would later report that Pollock "admitted" to him that Sobel's work "had made an impression on him."
Pollock's work after 1951 was darker in color, including a collection painted in black on unprimed canvases. 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. These works show Pollock attempting to find a balance between abstraction and depictions of the figure.
He later returned to using color and continued with figurative elements. During this period, Pollock had moved to the Sidney Janis Gallery
Sidney may refer to:
People
* Sidney (surname), English surname
* Sidney (given name), including a list of people with the given name
* Sidney (footballer, born 1972), full name Sidney da Silva Souza, Brazilian football defensive midfielder
* Si ...
, a more commercial gallery; the demand for his work from collectors was great. In response to this pressure, along with personal frustration, his alcoholism deepened.
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 Springs
Spring(s) may refer to:
Common uses
* Spring (season), a season of the year
* Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy
* Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water
* Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a he ...
area of East Hampton on the south shore of Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
. With the help of a down-payment loan from Peggy Guggenheim, they bought a wood-frame house and barn at 830 Springs Fireplace Road. Pollock converted the barn into a studio. In that space, he perfected his big "drip" technique of working with paint, with which he would become permanently identified. When the couple found themselves free from work they enjoyed spending their time together cooking and baking, working on the house and garden, and entertaining friends.
Krasner's influence on her husband's art was something critics began to reassess by the latter half of the 1960s due to the rise of feminism at the time. Krasner's extensive knowledge and training in modern art and techniques helped her bring Pollock up to date with what contemporary art should be. Krasner is often considered to have tutored her husband in the tenets of modernistic painting.[Rose, Barbara. "Krasner, Pollock: A Working Relationship". New York: Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, 1981. pg. 6] Pollock was then able to change his style to fit a more organized and cosmopolitan genre of modern art, and Krasner became the one judge he could trust.[Berger, John. "Portraits: John Berger on Artists". London: Verso, 2015. pg. 369] At the beginning of the two artists' marriage, Pollock would trust his peers' opinions on what did or did not work in his pieces. Krasner was also responsible for introducing him to many collectors, critics, and artists, including Herbert Matter, who would help further his career as an emerging artist. Art dealer John Bernard Myers
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
once said "there would never have been a Jackson Pollock without a Lee Pollock", whereas fellow painter Fritz Bultman referred to Pollock as Krasner's "creation, her Frankenstein", both men recognizing the immense influence Krasner had on Pollock's career.
Jackson Pollock's influence on his wife's artwork is often discussed by art historians. Many people thought that Krasner began to reproduce and reinterpret her husband's chaotic paint splatters in her own work. There are several accounts where Krasner intended to use her own intuition as a way to move towards Pollock's ''I am nature'' technique in order to reproduce nature in her art.
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's continuing alcoholism and infidelity involving another artist, Ruth Kligman
Ruth Kligman (January 25, 1930 – March 1, 2010) was an American abstract artist who was romantically involved with two prominent American artists of the mid-20th century, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.
Early life and education
Kligman ...
.[Rose, Barbara. Lee Krasner: A Retrospective. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1983. pg. 95] On August 11, 1956, at 10:15 p.m., Pollock died in a single-car crash in his Oldsmobile convertible while driving under the influence of alcohol. At the time, Krasner was visiting friends in Europe; she abruptly returned on hearing the news from a friend. One of the passengers, Edith Metzger, was also killed in the accident, which occurred less than a mile from Pollock's home. The other passenger, Ruth Kligman, survived. In December 1956, four months after his death, Pollock was given a memorial retrospective
A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...
exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting 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.
For the rest of her life, his widow Lee Krasner managed his estate and ensured that Pollock's reputation remained strong despite changing art world trends. The couple are buried in Green River Cemetery in Springs with a large boulder marking his grave and a smaller one marking hers.
Artistry
Influence and technique
The work of Thomas Hart Benton, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró
Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona i ...
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 his own signature style palimpsest
In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll
A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing.
Structure
A scr ...
paintings, with paints 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.
In 1936, Pollock participated in an experimental workshop run by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. It was there that he first used liquid enamel paints, which he continued to incorporate in his paintings in the early to mid 1940s, long before he encountered the work of
the Ukrainian American artist Janet Sobel (1894–1968) (born Jennie Lechovsky). Peggy Guggenheim included Sobel's work in her '' The Art of This Century Gallery'' in 1945. Jackson Pollock and art critic Clement Greenberg saw Sobel's work there in 1946 and later Greenberg noted that Sobel was "a direct influence on Jackson Pollock's drip painting technique". In his essay "American-Type Painting", Greenberg noted those works were the first of all-over painting he had seen, and said, "Pollock admitted that these pictures had made an impression on him".
While painting this way, Pollock moved away from figurative representation, and challenged the Western tradition of using easel and brush. He used the force of his whole body to paint, which was expressed on the large canvases. In 1956, '' Time'' magazine dubbed Pollock "Jack the Dripper" due to his painting style.
Pollock observed Native American sandpainting demonstrations in the 1940s. Referring to his style of painting on the floor, Pollock stated, "I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk round it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting. This is akin to the methods of the Indian sand painters of the West." Other influences on his drip technique include the Mexican muralists and Surrealist automatism. Pollock denied reliance on "the accident"; he usually had an idea of how he wanted a particular work to appear. His technique combined the movement of his body, over which he had control, the viscous flow of paint, the force of gravity, and the absorption of paint into the canvas. It was a mixture of controllable and uncontrollable factors. Flinging, dripping, pouring, and spattering, he would move energetically around the canvas, almost as if in a dance, and would not stop until he saw what he wanted to see.
Austrian artist Wolfgang Paalen's article on totem art of the indigenous people of British Columbia, in which the concept of space in totemist art is considered from an artist's point of view, influenced Pollock as well; Pollock owned a signed and dedicated copy of the Amerindian Number of Paalen's magazine (DYN 4–5, 1943). He had also seen Paalen's surrealist paintings in an exhibition in 1940. Another strong influence must have been Paalen's surrealist '' fumage'' technique, which appealed to painters looking for new ways to depict what was called the "unseen" or the "possible". The technique was once demonstrated in Matta's workshop, about which Steven Naifeh reports, "Once, when Matta was demonstrating the Surrealist technique aalen'sFumage, Jackson ollockturned to (Peter) Busa and said in a stage whisper: 'I can do that without the smoke. Pollock's painter friend Fritz Bultman even stated, "It was Wolfgang Paalen who started it all."
In 1950, Hans Namuth, a young photographer, wanted to take pictures—both stills and moving—of Pollock at work. Pollock promised to start a new painting especially for the photographic session, but when Namuth arrived, Pollock apologized and told him the painting was finished.
Namuth said that when he entered the studio:
From naming to numbering
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, " ok 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."
Critical debate
Pollock's work has been the subject of important critical debates. Critic Robert Coates once derided a number of Pollock's works as "mere unorganized explosions of random energy, and therefore meaningless". '' Reynold's News'', in a 1959 headline, said, "This is not art—it's a joke in bad taste." French abstract painter Jean Hélion, on the other hand, remarked on first seeing a Pollock, "It filled out space going on and on because it did not have a start or end to it." Clement Greenberg supported Pollock's work on formalistic grounds. It fit well with Greenberg's view of art history as a progressive purification in form and elimination of historical content. He considered Pollock's work to be the best painting of its day and the culmination of the Western tradition via Cubism and Cézanne to Manet.
In a 1952 article in ''ARTnews'', Harold Rosenberg coined the term " action painting" and wrote that "what was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event. The big moment came when it was decided to paint 'just to paint'. The gesture on the canvas was a gesture of liberation from value—political, aesthetic, moral." Many people assumed that he had modeled his "action painter" paradigm on Pollock.
The Congress for Cultural Freedom, an organization to promote American culture and values, backed by the Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
(CIA), sponsored exhibitions of Pollock's work. Some left-wing scholars, including Eva Cockcroft, have argued that the United States government and wealthy elite embraced Pollock and abstract expressionism to place the United States in the forefront of global art and devalue socialist realism. Cockcroft wrote that Pollock became a "weapon of the Cold War".
Pollock described his art as "motion made visible memories, arrested in space".
Legacy
Influence
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.
In 2004, ''One: Number 31, 1950'' was ranked the eighth-most influential piece of modern art in a poll of 500 artists, curators, critics, and dealers.
In pop culture and media
In 1960, Ornette Coleman
Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Jazz: A Colle ...
's album '' Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation'' featured a Pollock painting, ''White Light'', as its cover artwork.
In the early 1990s, three groups of movie makers were developing Pollock biographical projects, each based on a different source. The project that at first seemed most advanced was a joint venture between Barbra Streisand's Barwood Films and Robert De Niro
Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...
's TriBeCa Productions (De Niro's parents were friends of Krasner and Pollock). The script, by Christopher Cleveland, was to be based on Jeffrey Potter's 1985 oral biography, ''To a Violent Grave'', a collection of reminiscences by Pollock's friends. Streisand was to play the role of Lee Krasner, and De Niro was to portray Pollock. A second was to be based on ''Love Affair'' (1974), a memoir by Ruth Kligman
Ruth Kligman (January 25, 1930 – March 1, 2010) was an American abstract artist who was romantically involved with two prominent American artists of the mid-20th century, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.
Early life and education
Kligman ...
, who was Pollock's lover in the six months before his death. This was to be directed by Harold Becker, with Al Pacino playing Pollock.[Carol Strickland (July 25, 1993)]
"Race Is On to Portray Pollock"
''The New York Times''.
In 2000, the biographical film '' Pollock'', based on the Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...
-winning biography, '' Jackson Pollock: An American Saga'', directed by and starring Ed Harris, was released. Marcia Gay Harden won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Lee Krasner. The movie was the project of Harris, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Harris himself painted the works seen in the film.[Interview with Ed Harris](_blank)
at DVDtalk The Pollock-Krasner Foundation did not authorize or collaborate with any production.
In September 2009, the art historian Henry Adams claimed in '' Smithsonian'' magazine that Pollock had written his name in his famous painting ''Mural'' (1943). The painting is now insured for US$140 million. In 2011, the Republican Iowa State Representative Scott Raecker
Scott Raecker (born August 30, 1961) has served in the Iowa House of Representatives from January 1999 to December 2012, representing the 63rd District. He received his BA in Political Science and Religious Studies from Grinnell College.
A Repub ...
introduced a bill to force the sale of the artwork, held by the University of Iowa, to fund scholarships, but his bill created such controversy that it was quickly withdrawn.
Art market
In 1973, '' Number 11, 1952'' (also known as ''Blue Poles'') was purchased by the Australian Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the he ...
government for the National Gallery of Australia for US$2 million (A$1.3 million at the time of payment). At the time, this was the highest price ever paid for a modern painting. The painting is now one of the most popular exhibits in the gallery. It was a centerpiece of the Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...
's 1998 retrospective in New York, the first time the painting had been shown in America since its purchase.
In November 2006, Pollock's '' No. 5, 1948'' became the world's most expensive painting, when it was sold privately to an undisclosed buyer for the sum of US$140 million. Another artist record was established in 2004, when ''No. 12'' (1949), a medium-sized drip painting that had been shown in the United States Pavilion at the 1950 Venice Biennale, fetched US$11.7 million at Christie's, New York. In 2012, ''Number 28, 1951'', one of the artist's combinations of drip and brushwork in shades of silvery gray with red, yellow, and shots of blue and white, also sold at Christie's, New York, for US$20.5 million—US$23 million with fees—within its estimated range of US$20 million to US$30 million.
In 2013, Pollock's ''Number 19'' (1948) was sold by Christie's for a reported US$58,363,750 during an auction that ultimately reached US$495 million total sales in one night, which Christie's reports as a record to date as the most expensive auction of contemporary art.
In February 2016, Bloomberg News reported that Kenneth C. Griffin had purchased Jackson Pollock's 1948 painting ''Number 17A
''Number 17A'' is an abstract expressionist painting by Jackson Pollock. It is owned by hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin, who purchased it in September 2015 from David Geffen for $200 million, a then record-breaking price, at which time it w ...
'' for US$200 million, from David Geffen.
Authenticity issues
The Pollock-Krasner Authentication Board was created by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 1990 to evaluate newly found works for an upcoming supplement to the 1978 catalogue. In the past, however, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation has declined to be involved in authentication cases.
In 2006, a documentary, '' Who the *$&% 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. This work may be a lost Pollock painting, but its authenticity is debated.
''Untitled 1950'', which the New York-based Knoedler Gallery had sold in 2007 for $17 million to Pierre Lagrange, a London hedge-fund multimillionaire, was subject to an authenticity suit before the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Done in the painter's classic drip-and-splash style and signed "J. Pollock", the modest-sized painting (15 by 28 1/2 in) was found to contain yellow paint pigments not commercially available until about 1970. The suit was settled in a confidential agreement in 2012.
Fractal computer analysis
In 1999, physicist and artist Richard Taylor used computer analysis to show similarities between Pollock's painted patterns and fractal
In mathematics, a fractal is a geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scales, as illu ...
s (patterns that recur on multiple size scales) found in natural scenery, reflecting Pollock's own words: "I am nature". His research team labelled Pollock's style fractal expressionism.
In 2003, 24 Pollockesque paintings and drawings were found in a locker in Wainscott, New York. In 2005, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation requested a fractal analysis to be used for the first time in an authenticity dispute.[J. Abbott, "In the Hands of a Master", ''Nature'', vol. 439, 648–650 (2006).] Researchers at the University of Oregon used the technique to identify differences between the patterns in the six disputed paintings analyzed and those in 14 established Pollocks. Pigment analysis of the paintings by researchers at Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
showed the presence in one painting of a synthetic pigment that was not patented until the 1980s, and materials in two others that were not available in Pollock's lifetime.
In 2007, a traveling museum exhibition of the paintings was mounted and was accompanied by a comprehensive book, ''Pollock Matters'', written by Ellen G. Landau, one of the four sitting scholars from the former Pollock Krasner Foundation authentication panel from the 1990s, and Claude Cernuschi, a scholar in Abstract Expressionism. In the book, Landau demonstrates the many connections between the family who owns the paintings and Jackson Pollock during his lifetime to place the paintings in what she believes to be their proper historic context. Landau also presents the forensic findings of Harvard University and presents possible explanations for the forensic inconsistencies that were found in three of the 24 paintings.[Ellen G. Landau, Claude Cernuschi (2007). ''Pollock Matters''. McMullen Museum of Art Boston College, published by the University of Chicago Press.][Michael Miller (December 7, 2007). "Pollock Matters, The McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, September 1–December 9, 2007". ''The Berkshire Review, An International Journal for the Arts''.] However, the scientist who invented one of the modern pigments dismissed the possibility that Pollock used this paint as being "unlikely to the point of fantasy".
Subsequently, over 10 scientific groups have performed fractal analysis on over 50 of Pollock's works.[L. Shamar, "What Makes a Pollock Pollock: A Machine Vision Approach", ''International Journal of Arts and Technology'', vol. 8, 1–10, (2015).] A 2015 study that used fractal analysis as one of its techniques achieved a 93% success rate distinguishing real from fake Pollocks. Current research of Fractal Expressionism focuses on human response to viewing fractals. Cognitive neuroscientists have shown that Pollock's fractals induce the same stress-reduction in observers as computer-generated fractals and naturally-occurring fractals.
Archives
Lee Krasner donated Pollock's papers to the Archives of American Art in 1983. They were later archived with her own papers. The Archives of American Art also houses the Charles Pollock papers, which include correspondence, photographs, and other files relating to his brother Jackson.
A separate organization, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, was established in 1985. The foundation functions as the official estate for both Pollock and his widow, but also under the terms of Krasner's will, serves "to assist individual working artists of merit with financial need". The U.S. copyright representative for the Pollock-Krasner Foundation is the Artists Rights Society.
The Pollock-Krasner House and Studio is owned and administered by the Stony Brook Foundation, a nonprofit affiliate of Stony Brook University
Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...
. Regular tours of the house and studio occur from May through October.
List of major works
* (1942) ''Male and Female'' Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...
* (1942) ''Stenographic Figure'' Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...
* (1942) ''The Moon Woman'' Peggy Guggenheim Collection
* (1943) '' Mural'' University of Iowa Museum of Art, given by Peggy Guggenheim
* (1943) ''The She-Wolf'' Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...
* (1943) ''Blue (Moby Dick)'' Ohara Museum of Art
The in Kurashiki was the first collection of Western art to be permanently exhibited in Japan. The museum opened in 1930 and originally consisted almost entirely of French paintings and sculptures of the 19th and 20th centuries. The collection h ...
* (1945) ''Night Mist'' Norton Museum of Art
* (1945) ''Troubled Queen'' Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
* (1946) ''Eyes in the Heat'' Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
* (1946) ''The Key'' Art Institute of Chicago
* (1946) ''The Tea Cup'' Collection Frieder Burda
* (1946) ''Shimmering Substance'', from ''The Sounds In The Grass'' Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...
* (1947) ''Portrait of H.M.'' University of Iowa Museum of Art, given by Peggy Guggenheim.
* (1947) ''Full Fathom Five'' Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...
* (1947) ''Cathedral'' Dallas Museum of Art
* (1947) ''Enchanted Forest'' Peggy Guggenheim Collection
* (1947) ''Lucifer'' The Anderson Collection at Stanford University
* (1947) ''Sea Change'' Seattle Art Museum, given by Peggy Guggenheim
* (1948) ''Painting''
* (1948) '' Number 5'' (4 ft x 8 ft) Private collection
* (1948) ''Number 8'' Neuburger Museum at the State University of New York at Purchase
* (1948) ''Number 13A: Arabesque'' Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
* (1948) ''Composition (White, Black, Blue and Red on White)'' New Orleans Museum of Art
* (1948) ''Summertime: Number 9A'' Tate Modern
* (1948) "Number 19"
* (1949) ''Number 1'' Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
* (1949) ''Number 3'' Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
* (1949) ''Number 10'' Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
* (1949) ''Number 11'' Indiana University Art Museum Bloomington, Indiana
* (1950) ''Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist)'' National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
* (1950) '' Mural on Indian red ground, 1950'' Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
* (1950) '' Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), 1950'' Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...
* (1950) ''Number 29, 1950'' National Gallery of Canada
* (1950) ''Number 32'', Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen
The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is the art collection of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, in Düsseldorf. United by this institution are three different exhibition venues: the ''K20'' at Grabbeplatz, the ''K21'' in the ...
, Düsseldorf, BRD
* (1950) '' One: Number 31, 1950'' Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...
* (1951) ''Number 7'' National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
* (1951) ''Black and White (Number 6)'' San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
* (1952) ''Convergence'' Albright-Knox Art Gallery
The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum at 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, in Delaware Park. the museum's Elmwood Avenue campus is temporarily closed for construction. It hosted ...
* (1952) '' Blue Poles: No. 11, 1952'' National Gallery of Australia
* (1952) ''Number 12, 1952'' Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection
* (1953) ''Portrait and a Dream'' Dallas Museum of Art
* (1953) ''Easter and the Totem'' The Museum of Modern Art
* (1953) ''Ocean Greyness'' Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...
* (1953) '' The Deep'' Centre Georges Pompidou
References
Further reading
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mcah.columbia.edu
External links
Exhibition-'Memories Arrested' 2012
Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center
Pollock-Krasner Foundation
* ttp://www.nga.gov.au/International/Catalogue/Detail.cfm?IRN=36334&MnuID=2&GalID=1 ''Blue Poles''at the NGA
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20051224171704/http://materialscience.uoregon.edu/taylor/art/info.html#Recent_Publications Fractal Expressionism– the fractal qualities of Pollock's drip paintings.
Jackson Pollock Papers at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art
"Jackson Pollock, John Cage and William Burroughs"
talk at MOMA
pictures of Pollock
slideshow ''Life Magazine''
* Works by Jackson Pollock (public domain in Canada)
Museum links
*
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, California
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, California
Jackson Pollock
at the Israel Museum
The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...
, Jerusalem
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pollock, Jackson
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