Jackson Pollock


Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 - August 11, 1956) was an influential
American artist and a major force in the abstract expressionism movement.

He was born in Cody, Wyoming, and later moved to New York in 1929, where
he studied under Thomas Hart Benton. Pollock moved away from figurative
art, and developed techniques of splashing and dripping his paint onto canvas
(action painting).

From 1938 to 1942 he worked for the Federal Art Project, in the 1950s and
1960s Pollock was supported by the CIA via the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF).

Pollock's career was cut short when he died in a car crash in 1956.

He was the subject of the documentaries Jackson Pollock (1987) and Jackson
Pollock - Love & Death on Long Island (1999) as well as a movie drama called
Pollock starring Ed Harris. The earlier ten-minute documentary Jackson
Pollock (1951) was directed by Hans Namuth and had music by Morton Feldman.