The Sunday Post (Inverness)

Art world mourns the maverick genius once dub bed jack the dripper

- By Alice Hinds ahinds@sundaypost.com

Jackson Pollock’s work was once famously described as “mere unorganise­d explosions of random energy, and therefore meaningles­s” by New Yorker art critic, Robert Coates.

Whether meaningles­s or pioneering, as he was also considered in his lifetime, Pollock’s legacy has certainly endured since his untimely death on August 11, 1956, having become one of world’s most instantly recognisab­le artists.

His work now hangs in galleries alongside the likes of fellow abstract expression­ists Mark Rothko and Piet Mondrian, but “Jack the Dripper”, as he was famously dubbed, was born into humble beginnings. The youngest of five sons, Paul Jackson Pollock was born on January 28, 1912, and was raised in Arizona and California before following his brother, Charles, to live in New York City in 1930. There, the brothers studied under painter and muralist Thomas Hart Benton, and Pollock developed the early artistic skills that would lead to his fiercely unique style.

After working on various projects – and undergoing psychiatri­c treatment for serious alcoholism –Pollock’s first step into the limelight came in 1943, when art collector Peggy Guggenheim commission­ed him to create his first large scale painting. Formed by pouring and dripping paint onto the canvas, Mural, was a pivotal moment in Pollock’s developmen­t as an artist, and the process behind the masterpiec­e was later dramatised in the 2000 film, Pollock, starring Ed Harris.

Although the scene shows Pollock splash, drip and swoosh colour in just one frenzied night, the real-life process took many months, and saw the artist tear down a wall in his apartment to make space for the giant 8ft by 20ft canvas. The piece was initially installed in Guggenheim’s townhouse (much to the chagrin of one of her neighbours, as she wrote in a letter: “Everyone likes it nearly except Kenneth. Rather bad luck on him as he has to see it every time he goes in and out...”), and was later donated to University of Iowa Museum of Art where it remains today.

Following Mural, Pollock continued to push the boundaries of what has now been described as “action painting”, creating such notable works as No. 5, 1948, Number 17A, which was sold for a then record-breaking $200million in 2015, and perhaps his most famous piece, Mural on Indian Red Ground.

Of the creative process, Pollock said his drip technique, and later whole body painting, came naturally. He explained: “When I am in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing. I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.”

In the years following his worldwide recognitio­n – a 1949 four-page spread in Life magazine asked, “Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?” – Pollock struggled with the pressures of fame. His marriage to fellow artist Lee Krasner became troubled, and the alcoholism that had plagued his adult life deepened.

In 1955, he painted his final two artworks, Scent and Search, and the following year, having completed no new pieces, died in a singlecar collision while driving under the influence.

 ??  ?? Ed Harris plays the landmark artist in 2000 movie Pollock
Ed Harris plays the landmark artist in 2000 movie Pollock

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