Jackson Pollock has been considered to be the most influential American painter of the 20th Century after taking part in the emergence of Abstract Expressionism in his country. Born in 1912 in Cody, Wyoming, Pollock had a difficult childhood in Arizona and California before coming to New York in 1930. During a decade his paintings of figures and animals painted with violent tones attracted much attention before reaching the style that brought him celebrity after 1947.
Pollock, who took to drinking and sometime behaved like a rebel, developed a new form of painting by dripping paint from a brush or stick above the canvas, weaving interlacing lines, with drops and spatters of colours of intense intricacy.
His works produced between 1947 and 1950 heralded the emergence of Abstract Expressionism and enabled American art to be prominent worldwide in the following years.
His death in a car crash in 1956 somewhat made him a legendary figure similar to that of the actor James Dean while his work had a deep influence on many artists since then.
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