Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler was a painter whose soak-stain technique let thinned paint enter raw canvas, changing postwar artists’ approach to the support.
Painter
Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock was an American Abstract Expressionist known for pouring, dripping, and flinging fluid paint across canvases laid on the floor.
Jackson Pollock quick facts
Before developing his drip paintings, Pollock explored Surrealism, especially its ideas about the unconscious and automatic methods of making art.
| Full name | Paul Jackson Pollock |
|---|---|
| Born | January 28, 1912 · Cody, Wyoming, U.S. |
| Died | August 11, 1956 · Springs, New York, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Movements | Abstract Expressionism |
| Paint types | Enamel paint · Oil paint · Metallic aluminum paint · Watercolor · Gouache |
| Other media | — |
| Other materials | — |
| Painting surfaces | Canvas · Paper · Wood · Cardboard |
| Painting methods | Pouring, dripping, flinging, and brushing oil, enamel, and metallic paint on floor-laid canvas or board |
| Common subjects | Abstract fields, rhythmic lines, movement, mythic figures, and landscape associations |
| Notable works | Number 1A, 1948, One: Number 31, 1950, Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), and Blue Poles |
Sources: MoMA: Number 1A, 1948, MoMA conservation project, MoMA: Pollock materials and process, The Met: Untitled (ca. 1938–41), and LACMA: No. 15, 1950.
Paint types used by Jackson Pollock
Pollock used commercial enamel and oil in his poured canvases, added aluminum paint to some works, and made watercolor and gouache pieces on paper.
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Enamel paint
MoMA identifies both oil and enamel in Number 1A, 1948. Working with a canvas spread on the studio floor, Pollock poured or dripped the more fluid commercial paint with sticks and other tools; handprints also appear near the upper edge. The enamels were industrial coatings, not a special paint made only for artists.
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Oil paint
Oil appears alongside enamel in Number 1A, 1948 and Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist). LACMA also records No. 15, 1950 as oil on Masonite, showing that Pollock's poured and flung marks were not confined to large stretched canvases or to one type of paint.
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Metallic paint
The National Gallery of Art records aluminum paint alongside oil and enamel in Pollock’s Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist). The reflective metallic material contributes silvery threads among the poured and dripped lines. It is a documented component of this particular painting, not evidence that Pollock used metal leaf or metallic paint throughout his career.
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Watercolor paint
The Met catalogs Pollock’s early Untitled (about 1938–41) as watercolor and gouache on cardboard. The transparent watercolor shares the sheet with opaque passages, documenting a works-on-paper practice before the large poured canvases of his mature period. It should not be conflated with the commercial enamel and oil in his later paintings.
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Gouache paint
Gouache appears with watercolor in the Met's cardboard Untitled (c. 1938–41). The museum also holds a separate Untitled from the same period made in gouache on paper. These opaque studies should not be confused with the oil-and-enamel mixtures of his mature canvases.
Sources: MoMA: Number 1A, 1948, oil and enamel, National Gallery of Art: Lavender Mist, oil, enamel, and aluminum, LACMA: No. 15, 1950, oil on Masonite, The Met: gouache and watercolor on cardboard, and The Met: gouache on paper.
Painting surfaces used by Jackson Pollock
Collection entries identify canvas and paper among Jackson Pollock’s supports, with the examples below grounding each material in documented works.
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Canvas
Pollock made his best-known poured paintings on canvas, including MoMA’s Number 1A, 1948 and the National Gallery’s Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist). He placed large canvases on the studio floor and worked across them from multiple sides, allowing the support’s broad horizontal plane to receive poured, dripped, and flung paint.
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Paper
Pollock made painted studies on paper alongside his large canvases. The Met records his Untitled (1938–41) as gouache on paper and holds several other works on paper, including studies combining gouache, watercolor, ink, and drawing media. These sheets document a compact, exploratory format distinct from the floor-worked canvases of his mature drip paintings.
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Cardboard
The Met catalogs Pollock’s early Untitled as watercolor and gouache on cardboard. This rigid sheet carries a small-scale experiment in transparent and opaque paint, separate from the unstretched canvases associated with his mature poured work. The museum record documents the material directly.
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Wood
LACMA catalogs Pollock’s No. 15, 1950 as oil on Masonite, a manufactured wood-fiber board. This painting shows that his poured and flung marks were not confined to stretched canvas. The rigid panel offers a distinct support within the same period as his large-scale works.
Sources: MoMA: Number 1A, 1948, MoMA conservation project, MoMA: Pollock materials and process, The Met: Untitled (gouache on paper), LACMA: No. 15, 1950.
Painters similar to Jackson Pollock
Explore painters linked to Pollock through gestural abstraction, unconventional paint handling, fluid application, and physically direct ways of working.
Cy Twombly
Cy Twombly was an American painter known for gestural works that often combined oil-based house paint with crayon, pencil, and other drawing materials.
Mark Tobey
Mark Tobey was an American painter whose dense networks of gestural marks formed abstract compositions in casein, tempera, gouache, watercolor, and oil.