Jackson Pollock, 1912-1956 At the age of 17 Pollock realized he wanted to be an artist. One year later, he headed to New York and enrolled to study art. His teacher and mentor, Thomas Hart Benton, taught him the basics of art composition and introduced him to ‘murals’ (Can anyone tell me what I mean my a mural - A very large painting on a wall).

Mural, 1943 This huge painting, Pollock’s first large work, is considered a turning point in his career. He painted it in a single 15 – hour stretch of time. At nearly 20 feet long, Pollock had to knock out a wall in his apartment/studio to fit it in! It’s now a prized possession at the University of Iowa Museum of Art.

Jackson Pollock, Action Painting This slide shows Pollock painting in the barn that he used as an art studio. Instead of placing his paintings on an easel, Pollock put canvas directly on the floor. He often played music while he created his art. He walked around and even on his paintings, putting both physical and emotional energy into his work as he poured, dripped, and splattered paint onto the canvas.

Autumn Rhythm, 1950 Pollock is most famous for his drip paintings. Although he didn’t invent the drip technique, he was the first artist to create entire works using it. (How did Pollock create a sense of rhythm in this painting?)

Lavender Mist: Number 1, 1950 (Look at the top, right-hand side of this painting—so you see anything unusual?) Pollock put his hands into paint and made handprints, an instinctive gesture reminiscent of cave painters. (If you ever go visit Washington, D.C., you can see this painting in the National Gallery.)

Convergence, 1952 This Pollock painting is made with layers upon layers of paint that create a web like feel. (What colors of paint did Pollock use in this painting? Are they primary or secondary colors? What tools do you think he might have used to apply the paint?)

Shimmering Substance, 1946 In 1946, Pollock began a series called “Sounds of the Grass.” His wife, artist Lee Krasner, greatly influenced his art by introducing him to the beauty of nature. Have you noticed that in Pollock’s action paintings, your eye has no place to “rest” or focus, wandering from one curving brush stroke to another? Can you see what seems to be a big outline of a yellow circle in the center of the painting?

Jackson Pollock, “Jack the Dripper”, 1949 Jackson Pollock once said, “There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn’t have any beginning or any end. He didn’t mean it as a compliment, but it was. It was a fine compliment. Only he didn’t know it.”

No. 5, 1948 This painting, simply titled “Number five,” was done on an 8 foot by 4 foot sheet of fiberboard, with thick amounts of brown and yellow paint drizzled on top. (Does this remind you of anything you might see in nature?) In 2006, this painting was sold for $140 million, the highest price ever paid for a painting!