By DARLA MCCAMMON
Lakeland Art Association

Abstract art was not popular when the Great Depression hit this country. Many abstract expressionists found a great opportunity when the government offered jobs and projects between 1935 and 1942. One of those artists went on to become world famous.

Jackson Pollock, youngest of five boys, was born in Cody, Wyo. His father was a farmer and land surveyor, a job requiring travel and uprooting his family. Jackson Pollock lived in the West. From a young age he was independent and volatile and was expelled from two high schools before age 17. In 1930 he moved across America to New York City where his brother Charles was established. Both attended the Art Students League under Thomas Hart Benton.

Benton was an influence and toured the Western United States with several students including Pollock. In 1938 Benton and Pollock took jobs offered by the WPA. Benton’s style has survived to this day but Pollock’s signature style was not yet developed. Even at this young age Pollock suffered from alcoholism and some biographers said he had bipolar disorder. He agreed to psychotherapy in which the doctors treating him utilized his art as a means of helping him.

In July 1943 Pollock landed a gallery contract with Peggy Guggenheim, famous in the world of art museums. She also commissioned him to create a work for the entry to her townhouse. The work became an overnight success and propelled Pollock to peaks from which he never fell. The piece titled Mural was a twenty foot long by eight foot tall canvas. When noted art critic Greenberg wrote “That’s great art.” The path was cleared for more success. Within the next two years Pollock married the painter Lee Krasner and with a loan from Guggenheim they moved to Long Island where a spacious barn was converted to a studio. This was where his style would become permanently associated with his “drip” technique of casting liquid paint on huge canvasses. He moved away from easel and brushes and involved his whole body, fingers, sticks and found items in his creations. He studied surrealists, muralists, totem painters, sand paintings and any unusual technique that caught his eye. His rise to prominence in the world of art continued.

Later physicists would examine his paintings searching for mathematical answers to some of his complicated designs. Were they just random expressions or some precise rhythmic algorithms that were only produced by Pollock’s ingenious brain? These same scientists were later called to help verify the authenticity of “found” works after Pollock’s death when some of his lost works were “discovered.” Pollock died while driving under the influence in his convertible in 1956. One passenger died as well but his mistress Ruth Kligman, an artist, survived. His wife, Lee was not with them. Controversy continues to exist around certain of his paintings that were later proffered by his mistress. His wife formed a foundation that originally declined to be involved in attempts to verify and authenticate any of his works. Pollock paintings continue to draw extremely high prices at auction.

Upcoming and Current Events:

• Visit the Warsaw City Hall Gallery. Free admission daily 8 a.m to 4:30 p.m. weekdays. This is a great exhibit by Teresa Smith.

More info on LAA can be found at www.lakelandartassociation.org or on Facebook. Also call (574) 594-9950. Contact your author/artist Darla McCammon at [email protected].