Art in Focus with Helen Harrison: Jackson Pollock and Jazz (September 29, 2020)

In this lecture, Helen examines the relationship between Jackson Pollock’s “action painting” technique, which reached its apogee in 1947-1950, and the jazz music he loved. His spontaneous creation of free-flowing forms is often likened to jazz improvisation, specifically the bebop that was prominent at the time, and many people believe he listened to that music while he painted. Was Pollock responding directly to the rhythms and energies of jazz, or was the music’s influence on his art more oblique and subtle?
Helen A. Harrison, The Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, is a former New York Times art reviewer and NPR arts commentator. With a Master’s degree in art history from Case Western Reserve University, she has served as the curator of the Parrish Art Museum and Guild Hall Museum, a guest curator at the Queens Museum, and the executive director of the Public Art Preservation Committee. Until curtailed by the pandemic, she wrote a monthly column, “Eye on Art,” for the Sag Harbor Express. Her books include Hamptons Bohemia: Two Centuries of Artists and Writers on the Beach, monographs on Larry Rivers and Jackson Pollock, and three mystery novels set in the art world.
The Art in Focus Series is co-presented by the Stony Brook University Libraries and the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center. We would like to extend our thanks to the Herman Goldman Foundation and Stony Brook's John H. Marburger III Fund for supporting the series.