Pollock grew up in Arizona and California, the youngest of five brothers. His father left when he was eight. Two of his brothers were already studying art, and he followed them to the Art Students League in New York at seventeen, where he worked under Thomas Hart Benton. Benton painted muscular American regionalist scenes: cowboys, farmhands, rolling landscapes. Pollock absorbed the energy and rejected the subject matter.
Key facts
- Lived
- 1912–1956, American
- Movements
- Works held in
- 45 museums[1]
Biography
He drank heavily from his teens onwards. He was in and out of psychiatric treatment, tried Jungian analysis, and spent time working for the WPA Federal Art Project during the Depression. The early paintings are dark, tangled, influenced by Picasso and by the Mexican muralists Orozco and Siqueiros, whose experimental techniques (including pouring paint) Pollock encountered in a workshop.
The drip paintings started in 1947. He laid canvas on the floor of his barn in Springs, Long Island, and poured household enamel paint from tins, flicking and dripping it with sticks, trowels, and hardened brushes. He moved around the canvas, working from all four sides. No easel, no brushes touching surface, no predetermined composition. 'I am nature,' he told an interviewer, which sounds grandiose but describes the method accurately: the paintings record physical movement through space.
The drip period lasted roughly four years. By 1951 he had largely stopped, returning to figurative work that nobody wanted. His marriage to the painter Lee Krasner deteriorated alongside the drinking. He died in a car crash in 1956, at forty-four, drunk at the wheel. Krasner spent the next three decades managing his legacy and making her own paintings, which were excellent and consistently overlooked.
Timeline
- 1912Born on 28 January at the Watkins Ranch in Cody, Wyoming, the youngest of five brothers.
- 1930At 18, moved to New York City and enrolled at the Art Students League, studying under Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton.
- 1943At 31, received his first solo exhibition at Peggy Guggenheim's Art of This Century gallery in New York.
- 1945At 33, married fellow painter Lee Krasner and moved to a farmhouse in Springs, East Hampton, Long Island.
- 1947At 35, began his radical drip technique at his barn studio in Springs, laying canvases on the floor and pouring industrial paint.
- 1949At 37, featured in a Life magazine article asking whether he was the greatest living American painter, bringing him national fame.
- 1950At 38, painted Autumn Rhythm and One: Number 31 in Springs, the peak of his large-scale drip period.
- 1956Died aged 44 in a single-car crash in Springs, Long Island, after years of alcoholism.
Notable Works
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Where to See Jackson Pollock
27 museums worldwide.
-
80 works
National Gallery of Art
Washington, D.C., United States
-
7 works
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Houston, United States
Related Artists
Frequently Asked Questions
How did jackson pollock get famous?
Jackson Pollock gained fame after being featured in Life magazine on August 8, 1949. This introduced his work to a mass audience far removed from the bohemian Greenwich Village art scene.Is jackson pollock abstract art?
Jackson Pollock's art is abstract art. His process involved dripping paint of different consistencies, concentrating on his inner thoughts.Is jackson pollock still alive?
No, Jackson Pollock died in 1956.Jackson pollock art style name?
Jackson Pollock's art style is called Abstract Expressionism. His process involved dripping paint of different consistencies, concentrating on his inner thoughts.Was jackson pollock a good person?
Jackson Pollock was able to bring up a deep reservoir of inspiration and sensitivity. There is an elaborate, swirling symmetry to his paintings, with an almost mathematical precision.What is jackson pollock best known for?
Jackson Pollock is best known for his Abstract Expressionist paintings. His painting process became a ritual and an important part of the work, dripping paint of different consistencies while concentrating on his own inner thoughts.When did jackson pollock die?
Jackson Pollock died in 1956 at the age of 44.When did jackson pollock start painting?
Jackson Pollock began to study painting in 1928 at the Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles. In the autumn of 1930, he moved to New York and studied under Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League.Where can i see jackson pollock paintings?
Jackson Pollock's works can be seen at Metropolitan Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, and 2 other museums worldwide.Who was jackson pollock's wife?
Jackson Pollock's wife was the painter Lee Krasner. She spent three decades managing his legacy after his death.Why did jackson pollock create blue poles?
Jackson Pollock created Blue Poles in 1953 using his drip painting technique. The painting is well-organised and balanced in colours and forms, demonstrating the continuity of the drops and rhythmic lines.Why did jackson pollock start drip painting?
In the late 1940s, Jackson Pollock began to drip paint onto canvases laid flat on the floor, using sticks and old, hardened brushes. He declared that he felt more at ease on the floor, more a part of the painting, as he could walk around it and work from all four sides. This process clarified his work, despite sounding like a recipe for incoherence to many.
Sources
Editorial draws on the following primary and tertiary references for Jackson Pollock.
- [1] museum Buffalo AKG Art Museum Used for: museum holdings.
- [2] museum San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Used for: museum holdings.
- [3] museum Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam Used for: museum holdings.
- [4] museum Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen Used for: museum holdings.
- [5] museum Cleveland Museum of Art Used for: museum holdings.
- [6] museum Museum of Fine Arts Boston Used for: museum holdings.
- [7] book Jed Perl, Art in America 1945-1970 Used for: biography.
Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-05-31. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.
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