Pollock, Jackson

* 28.01.1912 - † 11.08.1956

biography

Pollock was born on January 28, 1912 in Cody, Wyoming. Before settling in New York in 1929, he attended the Los Angeles Art School from 1925. In New York he worked under Th. H. Benton and D. Siqueiros, exhibited at the "International Surrealist Exhibition" in 1942 and had his first solo exhibition with Peggy Guggenheim a year later. In 1946/47 he began with action painting, in which he dripped paint from above onto the canvas lying on the floor ("drip painting") or incorporated broken glass, wood and sand into his pictures. Later he added black synthetic resin, which created a contrast with the white background. Pollock died in a car accident in New York on August 11, 1956. In his abstract expressionist paintings he wanted to use contrasts to illustrate the contradiction between body and soul. Pollock's works, which focused on the process of production, contrast with artists such as his contemporary Mondrian, who created strict, controlled images.