Jackson Pollock Litho For Auction at 888 Auctions on August 15, 2019

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) was one of the most famous Post-War American artists. A pioneer of Abstract Expressionism, Pollock’s drip paintings ushered in a new era of non-representational art. “It doesn’t make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said,” he once remarked. Furthermore, noting that “technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.”

Paul Jackson Pollock was born on January 28th, 1912 in Cody, WY. He studied painting at the Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles. In the fall of 1930, Pollock moved to New York to study at the Art Students League, under the Regionalist painter, Thomas Hart Benton. Subsequently, he joined the WPA in 1937. He painted murals around the country in a style reminiscent both of Benton and the Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco.

Following the WPA program’s completion, Pollock took on a number of odd jobs and began producing Surrealist works related to those of Joan Miró. Peggy Guggenheim hosted Pollock’s first solo show at her gallery Art of This Century in 1943. The paintings that emerged from his Long Island studio during the late 1940s came to exemplify his entire career. Pieces such as Blue Poles (1952), generated enormous media attention, which turned Pollock into a celebrity.

On August 11, 1956 in East Hampton, NY, Pollack died in a car accident involving his mistress Ruth Kligman. Consequently, Pollack’s career was cut short at the relatively young age of 44. Pollack is survived by his wife, Lee Krasner. In 2006, Pollock’s No.5 (1948) sold for $140 million by David Geffen. At that time, it set a new record for the highest-priced painting ever.

Today, his collections are held in The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Tate Gallery in London, among others.