Jackson Pollock

“I accept the fact that the important painting of the last hundred years was done in France. American painters have generally missed the point of modern painting from beginning to end.. .Thus the fact that good European moderns [European artists who lived in the U.S. because of the Nazi”

“My work with Benton was important as something against which to react very strongly, later on; in this, it was better to have worked with him than with a less resistant personality who would have provided a much less strong opposition. At the same time Benton introduced me to Renaissance art. [remark on his former art”

“I can control the flow of paint; there is no accident.. Quoted in Ines Janet Engelmann Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner , Munich: Prestel Verlag (2007), p. 54”

“Pollock wrote this text on the back of a photo of himself taken in his own studio.”

“Technic is the result of a need new needs demand new technics total control denial of the accident States of order organic intensity energy and motion made visible memories arrested in space, human needs and motives acceptance Quote around 1948”

“When I am in my painting, I am not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a short of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about 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. In 'Possibilities', Vol. 1, no 1, winter 1947”

“Jackson Pollock: is he the greatest living painter in the United States?”

“It came into existence because I had to paint it. Any attempt on my part to say something about it, to attempt explanation of the inexplicable, could only destroy it. [1947, on his painting 'She wolf'] As quoted in David Anfam Abstract Expressionism , London: Thames and Hudson (1990), p. 87”

“I believe easel painting to be a dying form, and the tendency of modern feeling is toward the wall picture or mural.. In his application for a grant given by the Guggenheim Foundation 1944; as quoted in Barbara Hess Abstract expressionism , Cologne: Taschen (2006), p. 9”

“As to what I would like to be. It is difficult to say. An Artist of some kind. If nothing else I shall always study the Arts. People have always frightened and bored me, consequently I have been within my own shell and have not accomplished anything materially. Quote in Pollock's letter, Los Angeles (October 22, 1929) to Charles and Frank published in Jackson Pollock & Family (2011) American Letters: 1927”