Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock’s monumental Abstract Expressionist canvases earned him the title of “greatest living painter”. He had begun his artistic career in a more traditional manner, studying at the New York Art Students’ League under Thomas Hart Benton. Initially drawn to Surrealism and socialist Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera, he undertook work for the Federal Arts Project between 1938-42. He turned to abstraction around 1945 after moving to Long Island with his artist wife Lee Krasner. By 1947 he had developed the working method that would cement his reputation. Eschewing an easel, he laid canvas on the floor onto which he dribbled, poured and slung enamel paint, creating his famous ‘drip paintings’. He was championed by critics such as Clement Greenberg, who argued this type of spontaneous ‘Action painting’ revealed the artist’s unconscious. Despite growing acclaim, he turned increasingly to alcohol, leading to his death in a car accident aged only 44.