Editing Jackson Pollock (section)

===Influence and technique===
The work of [[Thomas Hart Benton (painter)|Thomas Hart Benton]], [[Pablo Picasso]] and [[Joan Miró]] influenced Pollock.<ref>{{cite book|last=Karmel|first=Pepe|title=Jackson Pollock: Interviews, Articles, and Reviews |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vNoX4iTHPs0C&pg=PA151|access-date=May 4, 2013|series=In Conjunction with the Exhibition "Jackson Pollock"... The Museum of Modern Art, New York, November 1, 1998 to February 2, 1999|year=1999|publisher=The Museum of Modern Art|isbn=978-0-87070-037-8|pages=151–}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Caitlin A.|last=Johnson|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/picassos-influence-on-american-artists/|title=Picasso's Influence On American Artists|work=CBS Sunday Morning|date=January 18, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Emmerling|first=Leonard|title=Jackson Pollock, 1912-1956|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IF2P-sLngmsC&pg=PA48|access-date=May 4, 2013|year=2003|publisher=Taschen| isbn=978-3-8228-2132-9|pages=48–}}</ref>
Pollock started using synthetic resin-based paints called [[alkyd]] enamels, which at that time was a novel medium. Pollock described this use of household paints, instead of artist's paints, as "a natural growth out of a need".<ref name="about">{{cite web |url=http://painting.about.com/od/colourtheory/a/Pollock_paint.htm |title=What Paint Did Pollock Use? |access-date=September 28, 2007 |last=Boddy-Evans |first=Marion |publisher=about.com |archive-date=February 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209114820/http://painting.about.com/od/colourtheory/a/Pollock_paint.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> He used hardened brushes, sticks, and even basting syringes as paint applicators. Pollock's technique of pouring and dripping paint is thought to be one of the origins of the term [[action painting]]. With this technique, Pollock was able to achieve his own signature style [[palimpsest]] paintings, with paints flowing from his chosen tool onto the canvas. By defying the convention of painting on an upright surface, he added a new dimension by being able to view and apply paint to his canvases from all directions.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Landau |first1=E.G. |title=Jackson Pollock's Mural: The Transitional Moment |date=2014 |publisher=J. Paul Getty Museum |location=Norway |isbn=9781606063231 |page=8}}</ref>

In 1936, Pollock participated in an experimental workshop run by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-pollock-siqueiros-fought-fascism-radical-art | title=How Jackson Pollock and David Alfaro Siqueiros Fought Fascism | date=July 19, 2017 }}</ref> It was there that he first used liquid enamel paints, which he continued to incorporate in his paintings in the early to mid 1940s, long before he encountered the work of 
the [[Ukrainian American]] artist [[Janet Sobel]] (1894–1968) (born Jennie Lechovsky).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hollistaggart.com/artists/biography/janet_sobel/ |title=Janet Sobel (1894-1968) |publisher=Hollis Taggart Galleries |access-date=December 2, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110712213618/http://www.hollistaggart.com/artists/biography/janet_sobel/ |archive-date=July 12, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Peggy Guggenheim included Sobel's work in her ''[[The Art of This Century Gallery]]'' in 1945.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bigthink.com/ideas/18624|title=Mother of Invention|author=Bob Duggan|work=Big Think|date=June 27, 2013 }}</ref> Jackson Pollock and art critic [[Clement Greenberg]] saw Sobel's work there in 1946 and later Greenberg noted that Sobel was "a direct influence on Jackson Pollock's drip painting technique".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cooke |first=Lynne |year=2018 |title=Outliers and American Vanguard Art |location=Washington, D.C.; Chicago |publisher=National Gallery of Art (U.S.); University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226522272 |oclc=975487095}}</ref> In his essay "American-Type Painting", Greenberg noted those works were the first of [[all-over painting]] he had seen, and said, "Pollock admitted that these pictures had made an impression on him".<ref>{{cite book|last=Karmel|first=Pepe|title=Jackson Pollock: Interviews, Articles, and Reviews|series=In Conjunction with the Exhibition "Jackson Pollock" - The Museum of Modern Art, New York, November 1, 1998 to February 2, 1999|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vNoX4iTHPs0C&pg=PA273|access-date=May 4, 2013|year=1999|publisher=The Museum of Modern Art|isbn=978-0-87070-037-8|page=273}}</ref>

While painting this way, Pollock moved away from figurative representation, and challenged the Western tradition of using easel and brush. He used the force of his whole body to paint, which was expressed on the large canvases. In 1956, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine dubbed Pollock "Jack the Dripper" due to his painting style.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808194-2,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071117114459/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808194-2,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 17, 2007 |title=The Wild Ones |access-date=September 15, 2008 |magazine=Time (magazine) |date=February 20, 1956}}</ref>

{{blockquote
|text=My painting does not come from the easel. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be {{em|in}} the painting.

I continue to get further away from the usual painter's tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc. I prefer sticks, trowels, knives and dripping fluid paint or a heavy [[impasto]] with sand, broken glass or other foreign matter added.

When I am {{em|in}} my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of "get acquainted" period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.
|author=Jackson Pollock|source=''My Painting'', 1947<ref name="Pollock1999">{{cite book|author=Jackson Pollock|title=Jackson Pollock: Interviews, Articles, and Reviews|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vNoX4iTHPs0C&q=%22My%20painting%20does%20not%20come%20from%20the%20easel.%20I%20hardly%20ever%20stretch%20the%20canvas%22&pg=PA17|year=1999|publisher=The Museum of Modern Art|isbn=978-0-87070-037-8|page=17}}</ref>}}

Pollock observed [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] [[sandpainting]] demonstrations in the 1940s. Referring to his style of painting on the floor, Pollock stated, "I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk round it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting. This is akin to the methods of the Indian sand painters of the West."<ref>Jackson Pollock, "My Painting", in ''Pollock: Painting'' (edited by Barbara Rose), New York: Agrinde Publications Ltd (1980), p. 65; originally published in ''Possibilities'' I, New York, Winter 1947-48</ref> Other influences on his drip technique include the Mexican [[mural]]ists and [[Surrealist]] automatism. Pollock denied reliance on "the accident"; he usually had an idea of how he wanted a particular work to appear. His technique combined the movement of his body, over which he had control, the viscous flow of paint, the force of gravity, and the absorption of paint into the canvas. It was a mixture of controllable and uncontrollable factors. Flinging, dripping, pouring, and spattering, he would move energetically around the canvas, almost as if in a dance, and would not stop until he saw what he wanted to see.

Austrian artist [[Wolfgang Paalen]]'s article on totem art of the indigenous people of British Columbia, in which the concept of space in totemist art is considered from an artist's point of view, influenced Pollock as well; Pollock owned a signed and dedicated copy of the Amerindian Number of Paalen's magazine (DYN 4–5, 1943). He had also seen Paalen's surrealist paintings in an exhibition in 1940.<ref>"In Mexico City, he [Motherwell] visited Wolfgang Paalen whose show Baziotes and Jackson [Pollock] had seen at the Julien Levy Gallery the year before." Steven Naifeh, p. 414.</ref> Another strong influence must have been Paalen's surrealist ''[[fumage]]'' technique, which appealed to painters looking for new ways to depict what was called the "unseen" or the "possible". The technique was once demonstrated in Matta's workshop, about which Steven Naifeh reports, "Once, when Matta was demonstrating the Surrealist technique [Paalen's] Fumage, Jackson [Pollock] turned to (Peter) Busa and said in a stage whisper: 'I can do that without the smoke.{{'"}}<ref>Steven Naifeh, p. 427.</ref> Pollock's painter friend [[Fritz Bultman]] even stated, "It was Wolfgang Paalen who started it all."<ref>Steven Naifeh, p. 534.</ref>

In 1950, [[Hans Namuth]], a young photographer, wanted to take pictures—both stills and moving—of Pollock at work. Pollock promised to start a new painting especially for the photographic session, but when Namuth arrived, Pollock apologized and told him the painting was finished.

[[File:Namuth - Pollock.jpg|thumb|Photographer [[Hans Namuth]] extensively documented Pollock's unique painting techniques.]]
Namuth said that when he entered the studio:

{{blockquote|multiline=true
|text=A dripping wet canvas covered the entire floor&nbsp;... There was complete silence&nbsp;... Pollock looked at the painting. Then, unexpectedly, he picked up can and paint brush and started to move around the canvas. It was as if he suddenly realized the painting was not finished. His movements, slow at first, gradually became faster and more dance like as he flung black, white, and rust colored paint onto the canvas. He completely forgot that Lee and I were there; he did not seem to hear the click of the camera shutter&nbsp;... My photography session lasted as long as he kept painting, perhaps half an hour. In all that time, Pollock did not stop. How could one keep up this level of activity? Finally, he said "This is it."

Pollock's finest paintings&nbsp;... reveal that his all-over line does not give rise to positive or negative areas: we are not made to feel that one part of the canvas demands to be read as figure, whether abstract or representational, against another part of the canvas read as ground. There is not inside or outside to Pollock's line or the space through which it moves. ...&nbsp;Pollock has managed to free line not only from its function of representing objects in the world, but also from its task of describing or bounding shapes or figures, whether abstract or representational, on the surface of the canvas.
|source=Karmel, 132}}