A documentary about Jackson Pollock, an icon of abstract expressionism.
Jackson Pollock was a member of The New York School and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He is well-known for his original drip painting technique and action painting. Peggy Guggenheim once called him "the greatest painter after Picasso". He was a living symbol of progressive art, a galvanizing personality who was once the subject of a controversial Life magazine report, tragically dying in a car crash. Despite his modest origins, (Pollock's parents were farmers in Wyoming, and its spacious rural landscapes haunted him for decades afterwards.) he became an unquestionable leader of the New York art scene, re-directing modern art from figurative to abstract, bringing American painting on a par with European art.
Director Kim Evans, known for his documentaries about Andy Warhol, Marc Chagall and The Velvet Underground, creates a complex portrait of a person and his time. The rebellious spirit of post-war America and its avant-garde personified by writer Jack Kerouac, actor James Dean and jazz musician Charlie Parker, was also part of Pollock's personality. It is this spirit that the artist's friends, colleagues and Pollock himself discuss in the film's archival footage.