JACKSON POLLOCK: ACTION PAINTING AND ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM

Jackson Pollock (1912 - 1956

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30 November 2005

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Birthplace and family Paul Jackson Pollock was born on January 28 , 1912 , on a sheep ranch in Cody , Wyoming-the fifth and youngest son of a Presbyterian couple of Scotch-Irish descent . His father , LeRoy Pollock , never led a financially secure existence . Shortly after Jackson 's birth , he left Cody with his family , never to return . Looking for opportunity , they moved six times in ten years : from Cody to San Diego (California ) to Phoenix

(Arizona to Chico (California ) to Janesville (California ) to Orland (California and finally to Los Angeles . Jackson never saw his birthplace again

Nothing in this itinerant life-style , nothing , indeed , in Pollock 's parents ' profession , interests , and education would explain why all five brothers chose careers in the arts : Charles Cecil Pollock (born 1902 was a painter and teacher , Marvin Jay Pollock (born 1904 ) was a rotogravure etcher , Frank Leslie Pollock (born 1907 ) was a writer and commercial rose grower , and Sanford LeRoy Pollock (born 1909 ) was involved in painting , graphic arts , and silk-screening . Young Jackson therefore , grew up in an environment where his brothers , if not his parents , were directly involved with art and with the issue of creativity

In 1922 the eldest brother , Charles , left home to enroll at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles . Four years later , in September of 1926 Charles left again to study at the Art Students League in New York with one of the most prominent American artists of the day : Thomas Hart Benton . Jackson would later follow his older brother 's footsteps by moving to New York in 1930 , joining him at the League , and studying under the same man . But before acquiring formal training in art Pollock , as a youth , was in constant trouble . In 1927 he enrolled at Riverside High School but left a year later as the result of an argument with an ROTC officer . When the Pollocks moved to Los Angeles in 1928 Jackson entered Manual Arts High School and met Frederick John de St Vrain Schwankovsky , a teacher who introduced him to mysticism theosophy , and modern art . But if Pollock found a sympathetic personality or a possible mentor in Schwankovsky , the discipline of school life and the stress on athletics proved too oppressive for him During the 1928-29 academic year , Pollock was expelled for his part in writing and distributing a pamphlet attacking the faculty and the school 's emphasis on sports

Out of school

Out of school , in the summer of 1929 , Jackson worked at land surveying and road construction with his father . Working outdoors in the vast expanse of the western landscape probably gave the young Pollock a sensitivity to the natural environment-a feeling he would later speak of and a quality that , arguably , he attempted to recreate in his mature work . In the fall Pollock managed to re-enroll at Manual Arts but was expelled again . Jacksons ' letters to his two brothers reveal the social and academic frustrations...