Jackson Pollock
- American 1912–1956
From 1947 to 1952—when he created his now legendary poured, or “dripped,” canvases—the name Jackson Pollock was virtually synonymous with American Abstract Expressionism, indeed as the name Pablo Picasso had once been with Cubism. In hindsight, a decade before that moment there was little to indicate that Pollock was fated to break ground in the New York art world. His participation in the easel division of the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration and his 1930s studies at the Art Students League (under Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton) hardly deviated from what was by that time a fairly predictable trajectory for a generation seeking to shed an inherited, European-derived abstraction and explore new aspects of the unconscious, the expressive potential of myth, and the element of chance in the spontaneous execution of their work. Pollock and his wife, the painter Lee Krasner, settled permanently in Springs, East Hampton, in 1945. Their home—now the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center—was an unheated nineteenth-century farmhouse on property hugging Accabonac Harbor. A neighboring small barn served as Pollock’s studio; an upstairs bedroom in the home was set aside for Krasner. The site became an object of public fascination as early as 1951, when the Museum of Modern Art screened Hans Namuth’s documentary of Pollock executing a dripped painting on a transparent sheet of glass. [Gregory Galligan]
Additional Research
Related Artwork
Related People
- Alfonso Ossorio
- Lee Krasner
- John Little
- Costantino Nivola
- Wilfrid Zogbaum
- Conrad Marca-Relli
- Betty Parsons
- Clement Greenberg
- Charles Pollock
- Hans Namuth
- Philip Guston
- James Brooks
- Reuben Kadish
- Robert Motherwell
- Ibram Lassaw
- Charlotte Park
- Willem de Kooning
- Helen Frankenthaler
- Grace Hartigan
- Tony Smith
- Peter Blake
- Stanley Twardowicz
- Theodoros Stamos
- Raymond Hendler
- Robert Rauschenberg
- Sheridan Lord
- Matta [Roberto Antonio Sebastian Matta Echaurren]
- Perle Fine
- Peter Busa
- Clyfford Still
Related Organizations
Related Locations
- Amagansett (visited 1945) (See map #1)
- Springs (lived in 1945 – 1956) (See map #2)
Related Tours
- Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner buy an unheated farmhouse in Springs
- James Brooks shares his seaside studio with Jackson Pollock
- The artists' community grows in Springs
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Related Objects
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- Jackson Pollock
Photograph by Hans Namuth
Courtesy Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
© 1991 Hans Namuth Estate -
- Hans Namuth
- Jackson Pollock and James Brooks on the path to Brooks' Montauk Studio, 1950
Photograph by Hans Namuth
Courtesy Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
© 1991 Hans Namuth Estate -
- Hans Namuth
- Jackson Pollock and James Brooks, 1950
Photograph by Hans Namuth
Courtesy Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
© 1991 Hans Namuth Estate -
- Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner at the beach, ca. 1955
Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner at the beach, ca. 1955, unidentified photographer. 1 photographic print : b&w ; 16 x 9 cm. Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner papers. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institute
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- Jackson Pollock, 1950
Photograph by Hans Namuth
Courtesy Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
© 1991 Hans Namuth Estate -
- Jackson Pollock, ca. 1945
Wilfrid Zogbaum, photographer, 1 photographic print: b&w; 18 x 13 cm. Courtesy of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner papers, ca. 1905-1984, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
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- Jackson Pollock, Clement Greenberg, Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner and an unidentified child at the beach, ca. 1952
1 photographic print : col.; 9 x 15 cm. Courtesy of the Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner papers, ca. 1905-1984, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
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- Untitled, 1951
- Drawing
- 17 1/2 x 22 inches
- 1993.3
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY, Gift of Edward F. Dragon in memory of Alfonso Ossorio
© 2010 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York -
- Untitled, circa 1946
- Drawing
- 6 1/2 x 9 5/8 inches
- 1995.1
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY, Anonymous Gift in memory of Sheridan Lord
© 2010 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York