Life and career
Origins and training
Pollock moved to New York in 1930 and studied with Thomas Hart Benton. Mexican mural painters, Surrealism and Picasso offered other important models.
Places, turning points and artistic change
After moving to Springs with his wife, the painter Lee Krasner, he developed the poured and dripped paintings of the late 1940s. Later work returned to darker, more recognisable figures as well as abstraction.
Beyond the studio
His working process changed ideas about scale, gesture and the painter’s body. Krasner’s artistic judgement and later stewardship were important to the preservation and understanding of his work.
Works across a career
Selected examples, not a complete catalogue. Read date ranges and attributions before inferring a career sequence.
Reading the selected works together
The early painting, drip painting and large 1950 canvas show both continuity and a major change in how the surface was worked.
- 01
1943
1943
The She-Wolf
- Material / technique
- Painting
- Attribution / role
- See the museum attribution
- Collection / source
- MoMA — Jackson Pollock
An early image to compare with the later web of lines.
- 02
1948
1948
Number 1A, 1948
- Material / technique
- Painting
- Attribution / role
- See the museum attribution
- Collection / source
- MoMA — Jackson Pollock
Poured lines and direct marks share the same field.
- 03
1950
1950
One: Number 31, 1950
- Material / technique
- Oil and enamel paint on canvas
- Attribution / role
- Collection / source
- The Museum of Modern Art
Artist-wide context
He worked around canvas on the floor, building lines by pouring and dripping paint.
Materials, marks and colour
Media and surface
Fluid paint can be poured, dripped and drawn across an un-stretched canvas.
Marks and structure
Layers of lines spread attention across the surface instead of one central figure.
Palette and light
Contrasting paint densities and colours build depth without conventional perspective.