Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock, born in 1912 in Wyoming, became one of the leading exponents of abstract expressionism.

Son of LeRoy and Stella, originally from Iowa, he would live only eleven months in Ohio before spending most of his adolescence in Arizona and the West Coast of the U.S. Accompanying his father in his work as a surveyor, he would come into contact with the natural beauty and culture of this part of the country. He would be expelled from a couple of schools, including an art school, before finally pursuing his art studies in New York City where he would come into contact with the Jewish community from Eastern Europe and later meet his wife, Lena (Lee) Krasner, daughter of an Orthodox Jewish family that had immigrated to America from what is now Ukraine.

The year 1949 would be a paradigm-shifting moment for modern art and for his life. In 1945, Jackson and Lee, after a period of great friendship, got married and left behind the big city to live in an old barn or field warehouse, which they used as a studio, at the northern tip of Long Island. It was there that the Wyoming artist would begin a novel experimentation in 1947. In 1949, these studies would give birth to sixteen masterpieces of the painting technique known as dripping (in English, Drip Painting), meaning paint drip or stream.

Influenced by surrealism and the automatic methods of André Breton, Pollock developed his painting technique, revolutionizing the way art is understood. This technique consisted of letting the paint fall onto the canvas from above, allowing the movement of the body to guide the flow of the paint, aiming to express the subconscious and free creativity from the traditional constraints of figurative painting.

Abstract expressionism, the movement Jackson belonged to, sought to convey emotions and internal states through abstract and dynamic forms. Among his most iconic works are "Number 1A, 1948" and "Convergence", revealing to the world a capacity to create complex, vibrant, and fast-paced compositions. His influence extended to artists like Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko, who also explored abstraction and emotional expression through color and form.

Pollock was also a reference point for artists of later generations, such as Richard Serra and Bruce Nauman, who continued experimenting with new materials and techniques.