Paul Jackson Pollock
Essay title: Paul Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock was born January 28, 1912, in Cody, Wyoming. He grew up in Arizona and California and in 1928 began to study painting at the Manual Arts High School, Los Angeles. In the fall of 1930, Pollock moved to New York and studied under Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League. Benton encouraged him throughout the succeeding decade. By the early 1930s, Pollock knew and admired the murals of Josй Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera. Although he traveled widely throughout the United States during the 1930s, much of Pollocks time was spent in New York, where he settled permanently in 1934 and worked on the WPA Federal Art Project from 1935 to 1942. In 1936, he worked in David Alfaro Siqueiross experimental workshop in New York.
Pollocks first solo show was held at Peggy Guggenheims Art of This Century gallery, New York, in 1943. Guggenheim gave him a contract that lasted through 1947, permitting him to devote all his time to painting. Prior to 1947, Pollocks work reflected the influence of Pablo Picasso and Surrealism [more]. During the early 1940s, he contributed paintings to several exhibitions of Surrealist and abstract art, including Natural, Insane, Surrealist Art at Art