Jackson Pollock was born on January 28, 1912, in the city of Cody, Wyoming. The world’s most famous Abstract Expressionist is known for his drip paintings, a technique he took up after seeing the works of Janet Sobel at The Art of This Century. While Sobel has faded into oblivion, Pollock eclipsed all of those around him, during his lifetime and since—it was only after his death that his wife, Lee Krasner (about to be the subject of an exhibition at the Barbican) gained recognition as a painter in her own right. Pollock famously said that “every good painter paints what he is,” and if this is the case—what do the paintings tell us about what Pollock? Perhaps that he was indomitable, ambitious, and unashamedly emotional. This image is an installation view of Pollock’s first ever exhibition in London, at the Whitechapel Gallery, in 1958—two years after the artist’s death.
