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Jackson Pollock

Uploaded by merafera on Nov 14, 2007

Jackson Pollock was born to LeRoy McCoy Pollock and Stella McClure Pollock on January 28, 1912 in Cody, Wyoming. His stay there was short as the family moved before he was one and continued traveling around the southwest United States. Pollock’s father would take his young son with him to work as a surveyor for road crews. This exposure to vast picturesque landscapes would give Pollock an artistic vision that would help develop a new form of artwork.
The Pollock family finally settled in California and Pollock attended Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles, California. It was there that he discovered a love for artistic expression. Through this pursuit he followed his brother across the United States to New York City. There he attended the Art Students League and studied under Thomas Hart Benton.
Benton was from the Regionalist school of art and guided the impressionable Pollock. Exposing him to the Masters of art and teaching him the rudimentary elements of drawing and composition. Benton also showed Pollock the majesty of art in mural form. Benton produced large murals on a grand scale with cartoonist like figures and distorted the musculature and bone structure of his subjects. His most controversial work would be the Indiana Murals which depicted everyday people in an unflattering light. His depictions of Ku Klux Klan members in full regalia thrust him into the national spotlight. His work on broad canvas’ and desire to mold people in his own image challenged Pollock to observe his world through an alternative view. Through this tutelage Pollock began to incorporate Benton’s “American Scene”, but added his own dark undertones to his work. Pollock once reflected upon Benton’s early teaching as giving him a standard to rebel against in his later work.
As a young artist trying to make his way in the world he was aided by Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal which included work relief projects for young artists. The Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project would provide economic freedom for the developing artist to hone his craft. Many pieces created by Pollock during this time have gone missing, but the surviving works show progression and use of alternative painting techniques combined with a strong desire to convey deeply personal matters though a canvas.
With the shadow of World War II...

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Uploaded by:   merafera

Date:   11/14/2007

Category:   Artists

Length:   6 pages (1,388 words)

Views:   9383

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