Description
Abstract action: The splattered oeuvre of a cultural icon
The insurrection hero of Abstract Expressionism, Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) careened through his life like a firework around the American art landscape. Channeling ideas from sources as diverse as Picasso and Mexican surrealism, he rejected convention to develop his own way of seeing, interpreting, and expressing.
Pollock’s so much famous works are his drip paintings, where he dripped and poured household enamel paint over the canvas with a lot of instruments, from sticks to syringes, hardened brushes to broken bits of glass. The splattered results pulsate with energy, replacing the refinement of easel and brush with something altogether more immediate, vivid, and physical. To evade the viewer’s seek for figurative elements in his paintings, Pollock abandoned titles and identified each and every work with a neutral number only.
Notoriously reclusive and volatile, suffering from alcoholism, married to fellow Abstract Expressionist Lee Krasner, and killed in a car crash aged just 44, Pollock is as much a compelling celebrity icon as a creative pioneer. This very important artist introduction explores both his work and his fame to remember masterpieces of the modernist story, and the making of a cultural icon.
About the series:
Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Art series features:
- a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
- a concise biography
- approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions