About His Style

When asked about his unique style Pollock said, “I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting. This is akin to the methods of the Indian sand painters of the West.” Pollock was very much passionate about his art and there is a very interesting incident that happened between him and a young photographer which proves how much he loves the art.

An Interesting Incident

In 1950, Hans Namuth, a young photographer was looking for an appointment with Jackson Pollock. He wanted to capture his art and him in the act. He wanted to capture the way he does everything and makes the most unique and beautiful arts that are par with European artists’ work. Pollock promised that he would meet and start painting after he would have arrived. But when Namuth reached the place he saw Pollock standing near the finished painting.

Young Photographer

“A dripping wet canvas covered the entire floor … There was complete silence … Pollock looked at the painting. Then, unexpectedly, he picked up can and paint brush and started to move around the canvas. It was as if he suddenly realized the painting was not finished. His movements, slow at first, gradually became faster and more dance like as he flung black, white, and rust colored paint onto the canvas. He completely forgot that Lee and I were there; he did not seem to hear the click of the camera shutter … My photography session lasted as long as he kept painting, perhaps half an hour. In all that time, Pollock did not stop. How could one keep up this level of activity?” said Hans Namuth after he went to the studio. 

More From The Photographer

“Pollock’s finest paintings … reveal that his all-over line does not give rise to positive or negative areas: we are not made to feel that one part of the canvas demands to be read as figure, whether abstract or representational, against another part of the canvas read as ground. There is not inside or outside to Pollock’s line or the space through which it moves. … Pollock has managed to free line not only from its function of representing objects in the world, but also from its task of describing or bounding shapes or figures, whether abstract or representational, on the surface of the canvas,” Namuth added further.

He Became A Legend

William Shakespeare in Literature, and Sigmund Freud in psychology, Jackson Pollock became the most influential artist in American art. It was Pollock’s work which made it possible for American painting to get compared by the influential paintings from the European artists. He was able to create a new scale and gave the surface and touch a new meaning. He changed the relationship between the space, pigment, edge, and drawing, through changing the structures of abstract art.

Serious Activist

Not only he was an active artist but was also involved in debates related to the history of the world art starting from the Paleolithic and Indian art to Renaissance art. Pollock always remained inclined to these aspects of art and had this rebel nature of not following the herd. When nobody expected a change back then the world saw the birth of an American Prometheus.