¶ … Prime Minister briefing " Should U.S. support European unification? "Dwight D. Elsenhower 1957

Since Jackson Pollock painted in a number of different styles and genres during his lifetime, it is with some difficulty that one can identify his aims and goals. During his career which began in earnest during the 1930's and spanned until his death in the 1960's, Pollock produced works that were indicative of cubism, surrealism, and abstract expressionism. However, it was his innovations in the Abstract Expressionist mode of paintings that enabled him to garner the most fame, and for which his name and works are still acclaimed today. As such, it would be accurate to state that the overall significance of Pollock's work lies in the fact that he was able to use them to express -- in approaches that were novel at the time -- virtually everything about a painter, including his conscious and unconscious mind.

Still, it would not be unfair...

In his early years he was involved with various aspects of surrealism and Regionalism, which led him to produce works in which his aims were to portray reality not as it was but as the painter himself conceived of it. Pollock's eventual progression to Abstract Expressionism was merely a continuation of this trend. This genre of painting, of which he is the initial purveyor and unquestionable innovator, enables the artist uninhibited freedom in expressing ideas that may not be based on reality at all, or are so in a way that is not discernible to the viewer. Pollock's abstract art allowed him to convey thoughts and sentiments that might not have had any basis in reality -- or at least in creating a portrayal of what that reality was.
Therefore, in order to acknowledge the significance of such works, it is crucial to deconstruct the…