Jack the Dripper

He certainly liked his drink did ole Jackson Pollock. So much so that he eventually managed to drive himself and a lady friend into a tree, killing both of them. But that was nearly sixty years ago. Nowadays, his art fetches monumentally high prices. I think his No.5 sold for $154 million a few years ago!

Why do people pay so much, when the canvas represents a load of splashes? Possibly because much of the 'action painting', as it was called was serendipitous, and certainly impossible to recreate to the drip, so exact forgeries or copies are out of the question. They are in essence completely unique.

He would spend inordinate amounts of time mixing his paint to the exact hue he wanted (drink in hand of course), then with enormous canvas stretched across the floor of his barn-like studio in Long Island, he would pool, splash, dribble and trickle the paint. No wonder he became known as 'Jack the Dripper'!

Up until 1945, he had been a straightforward artist, drawing and painting things as he saw them, financed by the Federal Art Project (a tool of the Roosevelt government to promote art amongst the unemployed, some of whom were artists). He had however been introduced to paint pouring techniques by a Mexican muralist and the Indian sand paintings he had seen no doubt helped also.

When his work was published in Time Magazine, the exposure multiplied the value of his work overnight. It didn't help his liver, but that's another story.

Do I like his work? I think I'd prefer to have an Edward Hopper hanging in the hall, but if I was selling, then an original Pollock should finance my next mansion nicely. :)