" Abstract painting is abstract . It confronts you . " Jackson Pollock ' 추상 미술 은 추상 일 뿐 이 며 , 그것 은 당신 앞 에 직면 해 있 다 . ' 잭슨 폴록 Photographer - Martha Holmes Title : Jackson Pollock painting in his studio , Springs , New York , 1949 © Time IncArtist : Martha Holmes Medium : Gelatin Silver print http : / / www . monroegallery . com / detail . cfm ? id = 659 Paul Jackson Pollock ( January 28 , 1912 – August 11 , 1956 ) was an influential American painter and a major force in the abstract ｅxpressionist movement . He was married to noted abstract painter Lee Krasner . Contents [ hide ] 1 Early life 2 The Springs period and the unique technique 3 The 1950 s and beyond 4 From naming to numbering 5 Death 6 Legacy 7 Relationship to Native American art 8 Critical debate 9 List of major works 10 References 11 Notes 12 External links [ edit ] Early lifePollock was born in Cody , Wyoming in 1912 , [ 1 ] the youngest of five sons . [ citation needed ] His father was a farmer and later a land surveyor for the government . [ 1 ] He grew up in Arizona and Chico , California , studying at Los Angeles ' Manual Arts High School . During his early life , he experienced Native American culture while on surveying trips with his father . [ 1 ] In 1929 , following his brother Charles , he moved to New York City , where they both studied under Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League of New York . Benton ' s rural American subject matter shaped Pollock ' s work only fleetingly , but his rhythmic use of paint and his fierce independence were more lasting influences . [ 1 ] From 1938 to 1942 , Pollock worked for the Federal Art Project . [ 2 ] [ edit ] The Springs period and the unique techniqueNo . 5 , 1948 In October 1945 , Pollock married another important American painter , Lee Krasner , and in November they moved to what is now known as the Pollock - Krasner House and Studio in Springs on Long Island , New York . Peggy Guggenheim loaned them the down payment for the wood - frame house with a nearby barn that Pollock made into a studio . It was there that he perfected the technique of working spontaneously with liquid paint . Pollock was introduced to the use of liquid paint in 1936 , at an experimental workshop operated in New York City by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros . He later used paint pouring as one of several techniques in canvases of the early 1940 s , such as " Male and Female " and " Composition with Pouring I . " After his move to Springs , he began painting with his canvases laid out on the studio floor , and developed what was later called his " drip " technique . The drip technique required paint with a fluid viscosity so Pollock turned to then new synthetic resin - based paints , called " gloss enamel ", made for industrial purposes such as spray - painting cars . During WWII , these gloss enamel paints were more available than typical artist ’ s oil paints , and they were cheaper . Pollock described this use of household and industrial paints , instead of artist ’ s paints , as " a natural growth out of a need ".[ 3 ] He used hardened brushes , sticks and even basting syringes as paint applicators . He would poke a hole in the bottom of a tin can of paint to get an extended drip line . 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 flying from his chosen tool onto the canvas . By defying the conventional way of painting on an upright surface , he added a new dimension , literally , by being able to view and apply paint to his canvases from all directions . In the process of making paintings in this way he moved away from figurative representation , and challenged the Western tradition of using easel and brush , as well as moving away from use only of the hand and wrist ; as he used his whole body to paint . In 1956 Time magazine dubbed Pollock " Jack the Dripper " as a result of his unique painting style . “ My painting does not come from the easel . I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor . I need the resistance of a hard surface . on the floor I am more at ease . I feel nearer , more part of the painting , since this way I can walk around it , work from the four sides and literally be in the painting . ” “ I continue to get further away from the usual painter ' s tools such as easel , palette , brushes , etc . I prefer sticks , trowels , knives and dripping fluid paint or a heavy impasto with sand , broken glass or other foreign matter added . ” “ When I am in my painting , I ' m not aware of what I ' m doing . It is only after a sort of ' get acquainted ' period that I see what I have been about . I have no fear of making changes , destroying the image , etc . , because the painting has a life of its own . I try to let it come through . It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess . Otherwise there is pure harmony , an easy give and take , and the painting comes out well . ” Pollock ' s One : Number 31 , 1950 occupies an entire wall by itself at the Museum of Modern Art , New York CityPollock observed Indian sandpainting demonstrations in the 1940 s . Other influences on his dripping technique include the Mexican muralists and also Surrealist automatism . Pollock denied " the accident "; he usually had an idea of how he wanted a particular piece to appear . It was about the movement of his body , over which he had control , mixed with the viscous flow of paint , the force of gravity , and the way paint was absorbed into the canvas . The mix of the uncontrollable and the controllable . Flinging , dripping , pouring , spattering , he would energetically move around the canvas , almost as if in a dance , and would not stop until he saw what he wanted to see . Studies by Taylor , Micolich and Jonas have explored the nature of Pollock ' s technique and have determined that some of these works display the properties of mathematical fractals ; and that the works become more fractal - like chronologically through Pollock ' s career . They even go on to speculate that on some level , Pollock may have been aware of the nature of chaotic motion , and was attempting to form what he perceived as a perfect representation of mathematical chaos - more than ten years before Chaos Theory itself was discovered . In 1950 Hans Namuth , a young photographer , wanted to photograph and film 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 ' s comment upon entering the studio : “ A dripping wet canvas covered the entire floor . . . . There was complete silence . . . . Pollock looked at the painting . Then , unexpectedly , he picked up can and paint brush and started to move around the canvas . It was as if he suddenly realized the painting was not finished . His movements , slow at first , gradually became faster and more dance like as he flung black , white , and rust colored paint onto the canvas . He completely forgot that Lee and I were there ; he did not seem to hear the click of the camera shutter . . . My photography session lasted as long as he kept painting , perhaps half an hour . In all that time , Pollock did not stop . How could one keep up this level of activity ? Finally , he said ' This is it . '”“ Pollock ’ s finest paintings … reveal that his all - over line does not give rise to positive or negative areas : we are not made to feel that one part of the canvas demands to be read as figure , whether abstract or representational , against another part of the canvas read as ground . There is not inside or outside to Pollock ’ s line or the space through which it moves … . Pollock has managed to free line not only from its function of representing objects in the world , but also from its task of describing or bounding shapes or figures , whether abstract or representational , on the surface of the canvas . ( Karmel 132 ) ” Pollock ' s Studio in Springs , NY . [ edit ] The 1950 s and beyondPollock ' s most famous paintings were during the " drip period " between 1947 and 1950 . He rocketed to popular status following an August 8 , 1949 four - page spread in Life Magazine that asked , " Is he the greatest living painter in the United States ? " At the peak of his fame , Pollock abruptly abandoned the drip style . [ 4 ] Pollock ' s work after 1951 was darker in color , including a collection in black on unprimed canvases , followed by a return to color [ 5 ] and he reintroduced figurative elements . Pollock had moved to a more commercial gallery and there was great demand from collectors for new paintings . In response to this pressure his alcoholism deepened . [ citation needed ] [ edit ] From naming to numberingPollock wanted an end to the viewer ' s search for representational elements in his paintings , thus he abandoned naming them and started numbering them instead . Of this , Pollock commented : "... look 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 . " Pollock ' s wife , Lee Krasner , said Pollock " 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 . "[ 3 ] [ edit ] DeathJackson Pollock ' s grave in the rear with Lee Krasner ' s grave in front in the Green River Cemetery . Pollock did not paint at all in 1955 . [ 5 ] After struggling with alcoholism his whole life , Pollock ' s career was cut short when he died in an alcohol - related , single car crash in his Oldsmobile convertible , less than a mile from his home in Springs , New York on August 11 , 1956 at the age of 44 . one of his passengers , Edith Metzger , died , while the other passenger , Pollock ' s girlfriend Ruth Kligman , survived . After his death , Pollock ' s wife , Lee Krasner , managed his estate and ensured that Pollock ' s reputation remained strong in spite of changing art - world trends . They are buried in Green River Cemetery in Springs with a large boulder marking his grave and a smaller one marking hers . [ edit ] LegacyJackson Pollock , Blue Poles : Number 11 , 1952 , National Gallery of AustraliaThe Pollock - Krasner House and Studio is owned and administered by the Stony Brook Foundation , a non - profit affiliate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook . There are regular tours of the house and studio from May - October . In 2000 , the biographical film Pollock 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 Ed Harris who portrayed Pollock and directed it . He was nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor . In 1973 , Blue Poles ( Blue Poles : Number 11 , 1952 ) , was purchased by the Australian Whitlam 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 . In the conservative climate of the time , the purchase created a political and media scandal . The painting is now one of the most popular exhibits in the gallery , and now is thought to be worth between $ 100 and $ 150 million , according to the latest news . [ 6 ] It was a centerpiece of the Museum of Modern Art ' s 1999 retrospective in New York , the first time the painting had returned to America since its purchase . In November 2006 Pollock ' s " No . 5 , 1948 " became the world ' s most expensive painting , when it was auctioned to an undisclosed bidder for the sum of $ 140 , 000 , 000 . The previous owner was film and music - producer David Geffen . It is rumored that the current owner is a German businessman and art collector . An ongoing debate rages over whether 24 paintings and drawings found in a Wainscott , New York locker in 2003 are Pollock originals . Physicists have argued over whether fractals can be used to authenticate the paintings . Analysis of the pigments shows some were not yet patented at the time of Pollock ' s death , although they may have been available to Pollock through a dealer . The debate is still inconclusive . [ 7 ] [ 8 ] In 2006 a documentary , Who the Fuck Is Jackson Pollock ? , was released which featured a truck driver named Teri Horton who bought what may be a Pollock painting worth millions at a thrift store for five dollars . [ edit ] Relationship to Native American artPollock 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 . ” [ 9 ] [ edit ] Critical debatePollock ' s work has always polarized critics and has been the focus of many important critical debates . Harold Rosenberg spoke of the way Pollock ' s work had changed painting , " 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 . " Clement Greenberg supported Pollock ' s work on formalistic grounds . It fit well with Greenberg ' s view of art history as being about the progressive purification in form and elimination of historical content . He therefore saw Pollock ' s work as the best painting of its day and the culmination of the Western tradition going back via Cubism and Cézanne to Monet . Posthumous exhibitions of Pollock ' s work had been sponsored by the Congress for Cultural Freedom , an organization to promote American culture and values backed by the CIA . Certain left wing scholars , most prominently Eva Cockcroft , argue that the U . S . government and wealthy elite embraced Pollock and abstract ｅxpressionism in order to place the United States firmly in the forefront of global art and devalue socialist realism . [ 10 ] [ 11 ] In the words of Cockcroft , Pollock became a ' weapon of the Cold War '.[ 12 ] Painter Norman Rockwell ' s work Connoisseur [ 13 ] also appears to make a commentary on the Pollock style . The painting features what seems to be a rather upright man in a suit standing before a Jackson Pollock splatter painting . The contrast between the man and the Pollock painting , along with the construction of the scene , seems to emphasize the disparity between the comparatively unrecognizable Jackson Pollock style and traditional figure and landscape based art styles , as well as the monumental changes in the cultural sense of aesthetics brought on by the modern art movement . Others such as artist , critic , and satirist Craig Brown , have been " astonished that decorative ' wallpaper ', essentially brainless , could gain such a position in art history alongside Giotto , Titian , and Velazquez . "[ 14 ] Reynolds News in a 1959 headline said , " This is not art — it ' s a joke in bad taste . " [ 15 ] [ edit ] List of major works ( 1942 ) Male and Female Philadelphia Museum of Art [ 1 ] ( 1942 ) Stenographic Figure Museum of Modern Art [ 2 ] ( 1943 ) Mural University of Iowa Museum of Art [ 3 ] ( 1943 ) Moon - Woman Cuts the Circle [ 4 ] ( 1942 ) Stenographic Figure Museum of Modern Art [ 5 ] ( 1943 ) The She - Wolf Museum of Modern Art [ 6 ] ( 1943 ) Blue ( Moby Dick ) Ohara Museum of Art [ 7 ] ( 1945 ) Troubled Queen Museum of Fine Arts , Boston [ 8 ] ( 1946 ) Eyes in the Heat Peggy Guggenheim Collection , Venice [ 9 ] ( 1946 ) The Key Art Institute of Chicago [ 10 ] ( 1946 ) The Tea Cup Collection Frieder Burda [ 11 ] ( 1946 ) Shimmering Substance , from The Sounds In The Grass Museum of Modern Art [ 12 ] ( 1947 ) Full Fathom Five Museum of Modern Art [ 13 ] ( 1947 ) Cathedral [ 14 ] ( 1947 ) Enchanted Forest Peggy Guggenheim Collection [ 15 ] ( 1948 ) Painting [ 16 ] ( 1948 ) Number 5 ( 4 ft x 8 ft ) Private collection ( 1948 ) Number 8 [ 17 ] ( 1948 ) Summertime : Number 9 A Tate Modern [ 18 ] ( 1949 ) Number 1 Museum of Contemporary Art , Los Angeles [ 19 ] ( 1949 ) Number 3 ( 1949 ) Number 10 Museum of Fine Arts , Boston [ 20 ] ( 1950 ) Number 1 , 1950 ( Lavender Mist ) National Gallery of Art [ 21 ] ( 1950 ) Autumn Rhythm ( Number 30 ) , 1950 Metropolitan Museum of Art [ 22 ] ( 1950 ) Number 29 , 1950 National Gallery of Canada [ 23 ] ( 1950 ) One : Number 31 , 1950 Museum of Modern Art [ 24 ] ( 1950 ) No . 32 [ 25 ] ( 1951 ) Number 7 National Gallery of Art [ 26 ] ( 1952 ) Convergence Albright - Knox Art Gallery [ 27 ] ( 1952 ) Blue Poles : No . 11 , 1952 National Gallery of Australia [ 28 ] ( 1953 ) Portrait and a Dream [ 29 ] ( 1953 ) Easter and the Totem The Museum of Modern Art [ 30 ] ( 1953 ) Ocean Greyness [ 31 ] ( 1953 ) The Deep