Attributed to Jackson Pollock, it does not have a COA. Medium: enamel on board. Spectacular horizontal art painting. Provenance: private collection from New York for more than 20 years. 37.5 x 17.5 in

Biography: Jackson Pollock was born in 1912 in Cody, Wyoming to Scotch-Irish parents; he was the youngest of five brothers. He was raised in Arizona and California; his father tried his hand at ranching, farming and inn-keeping all around the West. Jackson worked as a farmhand, milking cows, plowing and cutting alfalfa. Around 1925 his father was employed as a surveyor, and Jackson helped his father with a job on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. The family moved to Riverside, California, and Jackson enrolled at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles.When he was eighteen years old, he moved to New York City to study with Thomas Hart Benton. His brother, Charles, and later Sanford both studied painting in the same period and the three shared menial jobs to support themselves. Jackson's term with Benton was not very successful; Benton considered him to be unexceptional.In 1940 Pollock came to the attention of a New York gallery who invited him and two other painters to exhibit. One of the painters was Willem de Kooning, the other was Lee Krasner who became Pollock's most enthusiastic booster and eventually his wife.Pollock, together with Robert Motherwell, first experimented with tearing and clipping paper in 1943 when Peggy Guggenheim invited them to participate in a collage exhibition at her newly opened "Art of This Century" Gallery. Although the show led to a contract with the gallery and his first one-man exhibition, Pollock only sporadically returned to the medium. After their 1943 collaboration, Motherwell had remarked on Pollock's intense concentration and his enjoyment in savagely clipping and searing paper as they progressed. Peggy Guggenheim gave him a show, a mural commission and a stipend of $150 a month for four years.Lee and Jackson bought a dilapidated house in The Springs on Long Island, and Jackson threw himself into restoring the house. Unable to afford a car, they rode bicycles everywhere. Pollock's best teacher was his wife. In the late 1940's she suspended her career as painter to look after Jackson's career, to teach him to present himself properly in the prominent place he was already assuming in the galleries.Peggy Guggenheim moved to Italy in 1947, and discontinued her stipend to the Pollocks. They were forced to live on the sale of a handful of paintings. But it was a time of great creativity for Pollock. He would start work in the afternoon and stay in his studio far into the night. After several months of this he would stop painting to recharge himself. During these non-painting periods he would garden, go clamming, frequent local bars or stay home and listen to music. Although usually shy and taciturn, he enjoyed talking with the local workmen. He often contributed paintings as well as his own homemade apple pies to annual village benefits.By 1950, Pollock began to be a celebrity, but his increased fame only caused him to become depressed and uneasy. An off-and-on drinker since he was eighteen, he plunged into bouts of drunkenness. In the summer of 1956 he seemed to be putting his house in order. At the age of forty-four, he appeared exhausted from years of hard living and from the doubts and conflicts within him. He was killed in an accident on his way home from a concert; speeding along the road, he hit a bump and was thrown from the car and killed instantly.

All authorship of items in this catalog are described according to the following terms:

Signed [Artist Name] : In cases in which the signature is legible in the lot, this work is described as-is with no attributions given.

By [Artist Name] : The work is by the artist.

Attributed to [Artist Name] : The work may be ascribed to the artist on the basis of style, but there may be some question as to actual authorship.

In the manner of [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but was designed deliberately to emulate the style of the artist.

After [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but is a deliberate copy of a known work by the artist.

Circle of [Artist Name] : A work of the period of the artist showing his influence, closely associated with the artist but not necessarily his pupil.

Follower of [Artist Name]: A work by a pupil or a follower of the artist (not necessarily a pupil).

American, 19th century: This work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).

Mint

17.5 x 37.5 in