Jackson Pollock || the Myth of the Modern Artist

In 1949, Life magazine asked: “Is Jackson Pollock, the greatest American Painter." He is a figure that is polarising among art aficionados. Some see him as a fraud, others as a genius. In this short film I look at why he is so loved and hated at the same time, I look at just what Abstract Expressionism means, and I look at the myths surrounding Pollock and modern art itself. I look at his influences and I also look at a lesser known story, of how art became an unlikely player in the Cold War and the global contest of ideas. How Abstract Expressionism was enlisted as an unknowing agent in a shadowy propaganda war, bankrolled by the CIA, to sell the story of freedom… and capitalism.