Autumn Rhythm

Jackson Pollack

(January 28, 1912-August 11, 1956)

Jackson Pollack was born in Cody, Wyoming and grew up in Arizona and California. In 1930, he moved to New York City where he and his brother studied under Hart Benton at the Art Students League. Hart Benton and the Mexican muralists influenced Pollack’s early art works, representing rural America. After visiting Picasso his work became more symbolic. He married Lee Krasner in 1945 and moved to New York. Here he perfected the technique of pouring, dripping and splattering liquid paint onto canvases laid out on the studio floor. Pollock’s most famous paintings were during the “drip period” between 1947 and 1950. After 1951, Pollock’s work was darker in color, often only black and he began to introduce figurative elements. Pollock’s career was cut short when he died in a car accident near his home in Long Island, New York. Pollock, an influential American painter, was a major force in the abstract expressionist movement.

McGaugh Interpretation