Transplanted from Cody, Wyoming, Pollock worked for the Federal Art Project from 1938 to 1942.
Shortly after that, he abandoned traditional painting techniques and trusted his instincts. This
included laying massive canvases on the floor where he could circle and stalk… dripping and
dribbling not just traditional paint but house paint, nails, coins, and the stray cigarette butt.
“On the floor I am more at ease,” Pollock declared in 1947. “I feel nearer, more a part of the painting,
since this way I can walk around in it, work from the four sides and be literally ‘in’ the painting.”
De Kooning put it simply: “He broke the ice.” Therein lies the rebellion. Pollock and his
contemporaries painted what they felt with little concern for rules or conventions or critical
understanding. When one critic wrote that Pollock's paintings lacked a beginning or an end, the
painter replied, “He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was.”
Even as he became a cultural icon, Pollock's personal life was a never-ending melodrama of
alcohol, brawls, and self-doubt. He died in a car accident in 1956… thus fulfilling his own
prophecy: “The problem isn't painting; it's what to do when you aren't painting.”
Shortly after that, he abandoned traditional painting techniques and trusted his instincts. This
included laying massive canvases on the floor where he could circle and stalk… dripping and
dribbling not just traditional paint but house paint, nails, coins, and the stray cigarette butt.
“On the floor I am more at ease,” Pollock declared in 1947. “I feel nearer, more a part of the painting,
since this way I can walk around in it, work from the four sides and be literally ‘in’ the painting.”
De Kooning put it simply: “He broke the ice.” Therein lies the rebellion. Pollock and his
contemporaries painted what they felt with little concern for rules or conventions or critical
understanding. When one critic wrote that Pollock's paintings lacked a beginning or an end, the
painter replied, “He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was.”
Even as he became a cultural icon, Pollock's personal life was a never-ending melodrama of
alcohol, brawls, and self-doubt. He died in a car accident in 1956… thus fulfilling his own
prophecy: “The problem isn't painting; it's what to do when you aren't painting.”
TIMELINE:
1951 The Mattachine Society, the first nationwide gay rights organization, is formed by Harry Hay.
Patriot Words…
Totalitarianism is patriotism institutionalized.
— Steve Allen
75
… YOU'RE NOT
SUPPOSED TO KNOW
SUPPOSED TO KNOW