{"data":{"id":"1039","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":1039,"topgoose_id":1111,"tms_id":1039,"display_name":"Jackson Pollock","sort_name":"Pollock Jackson","display_date":"1912–1956","begin_date":"1912","end_date":"1956","biography":"\u003cp\u003eJackson Pollock “broke the ice,” as \u003ca href=\"/artists/339\"\u003eWillem de Kooning\u003c/a\u003e famously declared, clearing the way for an entire generation of abstract artists in the years following World War II. A key figure among the loosely affiliated group referred to as the New York School, he sought a new mode of painting that was both personal and relevant to his time. Pollock had become acquainted with a number of the Surrealists who fled to New York during the war, and their model of psychic automatism, a method that employed spontaneous expression and allowed for manifestations of the unconscious, was particularly important to his artistic progression.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1947 Pollock developed the innovative method evinced in \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/2634\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eNumber 27\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e,\n1950 and his other “drip” paintings.\nHe tacked unstretched, unprimed canvas\nonto the floor of his studio. Then he\ndipped hardened brushes and wooden stir\nsticks into cans of enamel or aluminum\npaint and dripped, flung, and poured liquid\npigment directly onto the cloth. “On the\nfloor I am more at ease,” Pollock explained.\n“I feel nearer, more a part of the painting,\nsince this way I can walk around it,\nwork from the four sides and literally be\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;in\u003c/em\u003e the painting.” With gestures at once controlled and improvisatory, he laid down skeins of black lines before adding looping cords of pink, silver, yellow, brown, and white to create an allover composition. The dense, overlapping layers seem to vibrate with energy. Pollock’s emphasis on spontaneity and the revelatory quality of his process helped elevate the act of painting to a level of importance equal to that of the finished picture. This shift would have a profound influence upon a multitude of artists in succeeding decades.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500015134","wikidata_id":"Q37571","created_at":"2017-08-30T16:05:24.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-11T07:00:33.827-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/1039/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/1039/exhibitions"}}}}