Pollock

“At the beginning, the canvas is white, void; then the cautious start, then therunning of the paint from the pot onto the white of the surface…”Hans Namuth.Born in 1912, in a small town in Wyoming, Jackson Pollock embodied the Americandream as the country found itself confronted with the realities of a modern era which wasbeginning to replace the fading nineteenth century. Like a storybook plot, Pollock lefthome in search of fame and fortune in New York City. Thanks to the Federal Art Project,he quickly won acclaim, and after the Second World War became the biggest art celebrityin America. For de Kooning, Pollock was the “icebreaker”.For Max Ernst and André Masson, Pollock was a fellow member of the European surrealistmovement. For Motherwell, Pollock was a legitimate candidate for the status of the Masterof the American School. During the many upheavals in his life in New York in the 1950s and1960s, Pollock lost his bearing – success had simply come too fast and too easily. It wasduring this period that he turned to alcohol and destroyed his marriage to Lee Krasner.Eventually, he achieved truly legendary status, ending his life like that other great starof the period, James Dean, killing himself after a night of drinking, behind the wheel ofhis Oldsmobile.