January 28 – Happy Birthday, Jackson Pollock

nPostednon January 28, 2015

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Today’s famous birthday is a highly regarded artist. Someone who is considered anmajor figure in the abstract expressionist movement. Someone whosenwork is well known, influential, and high priced!

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nAlso,nstrangely enough, someone whose work is sometimes criticized as “justna big mess,” or “not even art.”

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nJacksonnPollock was born on this date in 1912, and he died when he was justn44 years old, way back in 1956. So he is not a modern guy in thensense that he is alive now, or even that he was alive during the 2000s, or even much of the last half of the 1900s.
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nHowever, Pollock is considered a modernnartist. He is also considered to be someone who turned the modern artnworld upside down!
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nWhatnmade Jackson so famous, so controversial, so influential?

Fornthe most part, Jackson didn’t stand at an easel and paint a canvasnwith a brush or palette knife.

nInstead, he stood over a canvasnstretched out on the floor, and he poured paint, or he dripped paint.

nHe even flung paint. Sometimes he used sticks and trowels rather than brushes andnpalette knives. n

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nWithnall that pouring and dripping and flinging, Jackson’s works certainlynweren’t realistic representations of people, creatures, places, andnthings. Instead, his pieces were abstract. They were expressions ofnpure line and color. They were motion caught by the canvas. They werenspattering splatters and drapes of drips.

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