American painter. Pollock settled in Los Angeles in 1928, where he began his studies at the Manual Arts High School under Frederick John de St Vrain Schwankowsky who brought him to accept some contemporary spiritual concepts. In 1930, he moved to New York, where he studied at the Art Student League. Until 1938, his work was influenced by Benton, Albert Pinkham, Clemente Orozco and Siqueiros. The painting Going West is typical of this period and has many of the characteristics of the style and symbolism of Pollock's late Abstract Expressionism. In 1938, he underwent treatment for alcoholism which, in artistic terms, led to an exploration of his unconscious symbolism mediated by the stylistic influence of Picasso, Orozco and Miró. His works in these periods of psychotherapy contain elements that would later become part his personal iconography. In 1943, he had his first one-man show at the Peggy Guggenheim Gallery in New York. This was followed by annual exhibitions until 1947. Between 1944 and 1945, he experimented with engravings whose style was essentially abstract and, around 1948, he gained tremendous critical recognition. After 1951, he began drinking again, returning to his previous symbolic imagery. Towards the end of his career, in spite of producing and drawings of some quality, his mental and physical debility made him incapable of responding to the pressures and demands of an art world that saw him as a leader. He died in a car accident, in 1956.
