by Jackson Pollock is currently the most expensive painting ever sold.]] This is a list of the highest known prices paid for paintings. The earliest sale on the list (Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh) is from 1987, and more than tripled the previous record price, set only two years before, introducing a new era in top picture prices. The sale was also significant in that for the first time a "modern" painting (in this case from 1888) became the record holder, as opposed to the old master paintings which had always previously held it. Since that time sales of the most valuable paintings have usually been made at auctions, though that had by no means always been the case before, and the list below still shows some "private sales", including the three most expensive. The current record price was paid for a work from No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock sold at US$140 million in 2006, (approx. $150.6 million in CPI-adjusted 2010 US dollars).

Background

The world's most famous paintings, especially old master works done before 1800, are generally owned by museums, which very rarely sell them, and as such, they are quite literally priceless. Guinness World Records lists the Mona Lisa as having the highest insurance value for a painting in history. It was assessed at US$100 million on December 14, 1962, before the painting toured the United States for several months. However, the Louvre chose to spend the money that would have been spent on the insurance premium on security instead. Taking inflation into account, the 1962 value would be approximately US$713 million in 2010. The earliest sale on the list (Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh) is from 1987, and more than trebled the previous record price, set only two years before, introducing a new era in top picture prices. The sale was also significant in that for the first time a "modern" painting (in this case from 1888) became the record holder, as opposed to the old master paintings which had always previously held it. Currently, there are only three old master paintings on the list below: namely Portrait of a Halberdier by Pontormo sold at US$35.2 million in 1989, Diana and Actaeon by Titian privately sold at £50 million (US$70.6 million) in 2009 and Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens sold at £49.5 million (US$76.7 million) in 2002. Before the March 1987 sale of Van Gogh's Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers for $39.7 million ($76.6 million in 2010 dollars), the highest absolute price paid for a painting was $10.45 million ($21.2 million in 2010 dollars) paid by the J. Paul Getty Museum for Mantegna's Adoration of the Magi at Christie's in London on April 18, 1985. In constant dollars, the highest price paid before 1987 was by the National Gallery of Art when in February 1967 they acquired Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra de' Benci for around $5 million ($33 million in 2010 dollars) from the Princely Family of Liechtenstein.

Van Gogh and Picasso

Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso are by far the best represented artists in the list. Whereas Picasso became a wealthy man, Van Gogh sold only one painting in his lifetime, The Red Vineyard, for 400 Francs (about $1600) to the impressionist painter and heiress Anna Boch. His seven paintings in the list below alone were sold for $670 million.

List of highest prices paid at auctions or private sales (inflation adjusted)

This list is ordered by consumer price index inflation-adjusted value (in bold) in millions of September 2010 United States dollars. Where necessary, the price is first converted to dollars using the exchange rate at the time the painting was sold. The inflation adjustment may change as recent inflation rates are often revised. A list in another currency may be in a slightly different order due to exchange rate fluctuations. Paintings are only listed once, i.e. for the highest price sold.

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:93%;" |- !Adjusted price (in millions) !Original price (in millions) !Painting !Artist !Year !Date of sale !align=right|Rank at sale !Seller !Buyer !Auction house |- ! $151.8 | $140 | No. 5, 1948 | Jackson Pollock | 1948 | 2006-11-02 | 1 | David Geffen | | Private sale via Sotheby's |- ! $149.1 | $137.5 | Woman III | Willem de Kooning | 1953 | 2006-11-18 | 2 | David Geffen | Steven A. Cohen | Private sale via Larry Gagosian |- ! $145.3 | $135 | Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I | Gustav Klimt | 1907 | 2006-06-18 | 1 | Maria Altmann | Ronald Lauder, Neue Galerie | Private sale via Christie's |- ! $139.5 | $82.5 | Portrait of Dr. Gachet | Vincent van Gogh | 1890 | 1990-05-15 | 1 | Siegfried Kramarsky family | Ryoei Saito | Christie's, New York |- ! $132.0 | $78.1 | Bal du moulin de la Galette | Pierre-Auguste Renoir | 1876 | 1990-05-17 | 2 | Betsey Whitney | Ryoei Saito | Sotheby's, New York |- ! $120.3 | $104.2 | Garçon à la pipe | Pablo Picasso | 1905 | 2004-05-04 | 3 | Greentree foundation (Whitney family) | Guido Barilla? | Sotheby's, New York |- ! $106.6 | $106.5 | Nude, Green Leaves and Bust | Pablo Picasso | 1932 | 2010-05-04 | 7 | Frances Lasker Brody estate | | Christie's, New York |- ! $101.7 ++ | $58 plus exchange of works | Portrait of Joseph Roulin | Vincent van Gogh | 1889 | 1989-08-01 | 1 | Private collection, Zürich | Museum of Modern Art New York | Private sale via Thomas Ammann, Fine Art Zurich |- ! $102.7 | $95.2 | Dora Maar au Chat | Pablo Picasso | 1941 | 2006-05-03 | 4 | Gidwitz family | Boris Ivanishvili | Sotheby's, New York |- ! $102.0 | $53.9 | Irises | Vincent van Gogh | 1889 | 1987-11-11 | 1 | son of Joan Whitney Payson | Alan Bond | Sotheby's, New York |- ! $100.9 | $100.0 | Eight Elvises | Andy Warhol | 1963 | 2008-10 | 10 | Annibale Berlingieri | | Private sale via Philippe Ségalot |- ! $95.3 | $71.5 | Portrait de l'artiste sans barbe | Vincent van Gogh | 1889 | 1998-11-19 | 5 | Heirs of Jacques Koerfer | | Christie's, New York |- ! $95.2 | $87.9 | Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II | Gustav Klimt | 1912 | 2006-11-02 | 9 | Maria Altmann | | Christie's, New York |- ! $93.0 | $76.7 (£49.5) | Massacre of the Innocents | Peter Paul Rubens | 1611 | 2002-07-10 | 6 | an Austrian family | Kenneth Thomson | Sotheby's, London |- ! $87.0 | $86.3 | Triptych, 1976 | Francis Bacon | 1976 | 2008-05-14 | 13 | Moueix Family, Château Pétrus | Roman Abramovich | Sotheby's, New York |- ! $86.6 | $80.0 | False Start | Jasper Johns | 1959 | 2006-10-12 | 10 | David Geffen | Kenneth C. Griffin | Private sale via Richard Gray |- ! $86.3 | $57 | A Wheatfield with Cypresses | Vincent van Gogh | 1889 | 1993-05 | 5 | son of Emil Georg Bührle | Walter H. Annenberg | Private sale via Steven Mazoh |- ! $85.6 | $49.3 (F300) | Les Noces de Pierrette | Pablo Picasso | 1905 | 1989-11-30 | 3 | Fredrik Roos | Tomonori Tsurumaki | Binoche et Godeau Paris |- ! $84.4 | $47.85 | Yo, Picasso | Pablo Picasso | 1901 | 1989-05-09 | 2 | Wendell Cherry | Stavros Niarchos | Sotheby's, New York |- ! $84.0 | $80.0 | Turquoise Marilyn | Andy Warhol | 1964 | 2007-05-20 | 17 | Stefan Edlis | Steven A. Cohen | Private sale via Larry Gagosian |- ! $80.4 | $80.5 (£40.9) | Le Bassin aux Nymphéas | Claude Monet | 1919 | 2008-06-24 | 19 | J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller | | Christie's, London |- ! $79.5 | $60.5 | Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier | Paul Cézanne | 1894 | 1999-05-10 | 9 | Whitney Family | | Sotheby's, New York |- ! $77.3 | $39.7 (£24.75) | Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers | Vincent van Gogh | 1888 | 1987-03-30 | 1 | daughter-in-law of Chester Beatty | Yasuo Goto, Yasuda Comp. | Christie's, London |- ! $76.5 | $72.8 | White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) | Mark Rothko | 1950 | 2007-05-15 | 20 | David Rockefeller, Sr. |Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani | Sotheby's, New York |- ! $75.3 | $71.7 | Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I) | Andy Warhol | 1963 | 2007-05-16 | 21 | Private collection, Zürich | Philip Niarchos | Christie's, New York |- ! $72.7 | $70.6 (£50) | Diana and Actaeon | Titian | 1556–1559 | 2009-02-01 | 25 | Duke of Sutherland | National Galleries of Scotland & National Gallery, London | Private sale |- ! $71.9 | $68 | The Gross Clinic | Thomas Eakins | 1875 | 2007-04-12 | 20 | Thomas Jefferson University | Philadelphia Museum of Art | Private sale. |- ! $70.6 | $40.7 | Au Lapin Agile | Pablo Picasso | 1904 | 1989-11-27 | 5 | daughter of Joan Whitney Payson | Walter H. Annenberg | Sotheby's, New York |- ! $70.0 | $38.5 (£20.9) | Acrobate et jeune Arlequin | Pablo Picasso | 1905 | 1988-11-28 | 3 | heir of Roger Janssen? | Mitsukoshi | Christie's, London |- ! $69.0 | $55.0 | Femme aux Bras Croisés | Pablo Picasso | 1902 | 2000-11-08 | 13 | McCormick family, Chicago | | Christie's, New York |- ! $69.0 | $69.0 | Nude Sitting on a Divan ("La Belle Romaine") | Amadeo Modigliani | 1917 | 2010-11-09 | 31 | Halit Cingillioğlu | | Sotheby's, New York |- ! $68.7 | $63.5 | Police Gazette | Willem de Kooning | 1955 | 2006-10-12 | 19 | David Geffen | Steven A. Cohen | Private sale via Richard Gray Gallery |- ! $65.5 | $48.4 | Le Rêve | Pablo Picasso | 1932 | 1997-11-10 | 11 | Ganz family | Wolfgang Flöttl | Christie's, New York. |- ! $64.6 | $47.5 | Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat | Vincent van Gogh | 1890 | 1997 | 11 | | Stephen Wynn | Private sale via Acquavella Galleries Inc., New York |- ! $64.4 | $49.6 | Femme assise dans un jardin | Pablo Picasso | 1938 | 1999-11-10 | 15 | Robert Saidenberg | | Sotheby's, New York |- !$63.4 |$63.4 |Men in Her Life | Andy Warhol |1962 |2010-11-08 |35 | Jose Mugrabi | |Phillips de Pury & Company |- ! $62.1 | $35.2 | Portrait of a Halberdier | Pontormo | 1537 | 1989-05-31 | 5 | Chauncey Devereaux Stillman | Getty Museum | Christie's, New York |- ! $61.7 | $60.0 | Suprematist Composition | Kazimir Malevich | 1916 | 2008-11-03 | 34 | Heirs of Kazimir Malevich | | Sotheby's, New York |}

See also

Cultural Commodification

Gallery

Notes

External links

Crème de la Crème: Most Expensive Paintings

Top 100 most expensive paintings (French)

Paintings Category:Lists of works of art

Name	Randy Pausch
Caption	Dr. Randy Pausch
Birth date	October 23, 1960
Birth place	Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Death date	July 25, 2008
Death place	Chesapeake, Virginia, USA
Death cause	Pancreatic cancer
Nationality	American
Fields	Computer scienceHuman Computer Interaction
Workplaces	Carnegie Mellon UniversityUniversity of Virginia
Alma mater	Brown UniversityCarnegie Mellon University
Doctoral advisor	Alfred Spector
Known for	Creator of Alice software projectCofounder of CMU's Entertainment Technology CenterVirtual Reality Research with Disney ImagineersInspirational speeches regarding life#1 best-selling bookBattle with cancer
Awards	Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator AwardACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science EducationAward for Outstanding Contributions to Computer Science EducationFellow of the ACMTime's Time 100
Religion	Unitarian Universalist
Signature

Randolph Frederick "Randy" Pausch (October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was an American professor of computer science and human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pausch learned that he had pancreatic cancer in September 2006, and in August 2007 he was given a terminal diagnosis: "3 to 6 months of good health left". He gave an upbeat lecture entitled "The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon, which became a popular YouTube video and led to other media appearances. He then co-authored a book called The Last Lecture on the same theme, which became a New York Times best-seller. Pausch died of complications from pancreatic cancer on July 25, 2008.

Early life

Pausch was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in Columbia, Maryland. While completing his doctoral studies, Pausch was briefly employed at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and Adobe Systems.

Computer science career

Pausch was an assistant and associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science from 1988 until 1997. While there, he completed sabbaticals at Walt Disney Imagineering and Electronic Arts (EA). In 1997, Pausch became Associate Professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction and Design, at Carnegie Mellon University. He was a co-founder in 1998, along with Don Marinelli, of CMU's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), and he started the Building Virtual Worlds course at CMU and taught it for 10 years. He consulted with Google on user interface design and also consulted with PARC, Imagineering, and Media Metrix. He received the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award and was a Lilly Foundation Teaching Fellow. Pausch was the author or co-author of five books and over 70 articles.

Pausch received two awards from ACM in 2007 for his achievements in computing education: the Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award and the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computer Science Education. He was also inducted as a Fellow of the ACM in 2007.

Cancer and death

Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent a Whipple procedure (pancreaticoduodenectomy) on September 19, 2006 in an unsuccessful attempt to halt his pancreatic cancer. He was told in August 2007 to expect a remaining three to six months of good health. He soon moved his family to Chesapeake, Virginia, a suburb near Norfolk, to be close to his wife's family. On March 13, 2008, Pausch advocated for greater federal funding for pancreatic cancer before the United States Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. In the week prior to this, he had been hospitalized in order to have needle aspiration of pleural effusion in his right lung.

On May 2, 2008, a positron emission tomography (PET) scan showed that he had very tiny ( or less) metastases in his lungs and some lymph nodes in his chest. He also had some metastases in his peritoneal and retroperitoneal cavities. On June 26, 2008, Pausch indicated that he was considering stopping further chemotherapy because of the potential adverse side effects. He was, however, considering some immuno-therapy-based approaches. On July 24, on behalf of Pausch, a friend anonymously posted a message on Pausch's webpage stating that a biopsy had indicated that the cancer had progressed further than what was expected from recent PET scans and that Pausch had "taken a step down" and was "much sicker than he had been". The friend also stated that Pausch had then enrolled in a hospice program designed to provide palliative care to those at the end of life.

Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Pausch delivered his "Last Lecture", titled Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, at CMU on September 18, 2007. He gave an abridged version of his speech on the Oprah show in October 2007. The talk was modeled after an ongoing series of lectures where top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical "final talk", with a topic such as "what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?" Before speaking, Pausch received a long standing ovation from a large crowd of over 400 colleagues and students. When he motioned them to sit down, saying, "Make me earn it," someone in the audience shouted back, "You did!"

During the lecture, Pausch was upbeat and humorous, alternating between wisecracks, insights on computer science and engineering education, advice on building multi-disciplinary collaborations, working in groups and interacting with other people, offering inspirational life lessons, and performing push-ups on stage. He also commented on the irony that the "Last Lecture" series had recently been renamed as "Journeys", saying, "I thought, damn, I finally nailed the venue and they renamed it."—pledged to honor Pausch by creating a memorial scholarship for women in computer science, in recognition of Pausch's support and mentoring of women in CS and engineering. to connect CMU's new Computer Science building and the Center for the Arts, symbolizing the way Pausch linked those two disciplines. Brown University professor Andries van Dam followed Pausch's last lecture with a tearful and impassioned speech praising him for his courage and leadership, calling him a role model.

The Randy Pausch Memorial Footbridge was dedicated in October 30, 2009 with Jai, Dylan, Logan and Chloe Pausch cutting the ribbon.

The Last Lecture

The Disney-owned publisher Hyperion paid $6.7 million for the rights to publish a book about Pausch called The Last Lecture, co-authored by Pausch and Wall Street Journal reporter Jeffrey Zaslow. The book became a New York Times best-seller on April 28, 2008. The Last Lecture expands on Pausch's speech. The book's first printing had 400,000 copies, and it has been translated into 46 languages. It has spent more than 85 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, and there are now more than 4.5 million copies in print in the U.S. alone. Despite speculation that the book would be made into a movie, Pausch had denied these rumors, stating that "there's a reason to do the book, but if it's telling the story of the lecture in the medium of film, we already have that."

Media coverage

Pausch was named "Person of the Week" on ABC's World News with Charles Gibson on September 21, 2007. His "Last Lecture" attracted wide attention from the international media, became an Internet hit, and was viewed over a million times in the first month after its delivery. On October 22, 2007, Pausch appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show where he discussed his situation and summarized his "Last Lecture". On April 9, 2008, the ABC network aired an hour long Diane Sawyer feature on Pausch titled "The Last Lecture: A Love Story For Your Life". On July 29, 2008, ABC aired a follow up to the Last Lecture special, remembering Pausch and his famous lecture.

Other lectures and appearances

Pausch gave a lecture about time management on November 27, 2007 at the University of Virginia, to an audience of over 850 people. In March 2008, Pausch appeared in a public service announcement video and testified before Congress in support of cancer research. On May 18, 2008, Pausch made a surprise return appearance at Carnegie Mellon, giving a speech at the commencement ceremony, as well as attending the School of Computer Science's diploma ceremony, and on May 19 Pausch appeared on the Good Morning America show. His lecture, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams", was nominated at the 2007 YouTube Video Awards.

A devoted Star Trek fan, Pausch was invited by film director J. J. Abrams to film a role in Star Trek. Abrams heard of Pausch's condition and sent a personal e-mail inviting Pausch to the set. Pausch accepted and traveled to Los Angeles, California to shoot his scene. In addition to appearing in the film, he also has a line of dialogue at the beginning of the film ("Captain, we have visual.") and donated the $217.06 paycheck to charity.

Honors

The Pittsburgh City Council declared November 19, 2007 to be "Dr. Randy Pausch Day". In May 2008, Pausch was listed by Time as one of the World's Top-100 Most Influential People. On May 30, 2008, Randy received a letter from then President George W. Bush thanking him for his commitment to the Nation's youth. On February 4, 2009, The Walt Disney Company dedicated a tribute plaque at Walt Disney World near the "Mad Tea Party" attraction with a quote by Randy that reads "Be good at something; It makes you valuable ... Have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcome." The Walt Disney Company also created the Disney Memorial Pausch Fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University, which will support two graduate students.

Per Jared Cohon's announcement on the day of the Last Lecture, a raised pedestrian bridge at CMU that connects the Gates Computer Science building and the Purnell Center for the Arts is named after Pausch, symbolizing the way he linked the two disciplines.

Other publications

Adding input and output to the transactional model (Research paper, CMU), 1988

References

External links

Randy Pausch's Home Page at Carnegie Mellon University

News about Randy Pausch at the University of Virginia

Randy Pausch's Publications on Google Scholar

Videos

The last lecture of Randy Pausch at Youtube

The last lecture of Randy Pausch at iTunes U

"Time Management" by Randy Pausch, November 2007 at Google Video

(presentation slides)

Randy Pausch addressing the CMU 2008 graduating class

Randy Pausch on Good Morning America, May 19, 2008

An Interview with Steve Seabolt about Randy Pausch - video audio (mp3) with John Ortberg at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church on September 12, 2008

Randy Pausch's five second Star Trek cameo

Category:American academics Category:American computer scientists Category:American scientists Category:Human Computer Interaction Institute faculty Category:Computer science teachers Category:Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Category:Carnegie Mellon University faculty Category:University of Virginia faculty Category:Brown University alumni Category:Carnegie Mellon University alumni Category:People from Baltimore, Maryland Category:People from Howard County, Maryland Category:People from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Category:American motivational speakers Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer Category:Cancer deaths in Virginia Category:1960 births Category:2008 deaths

Bgcolour	silver
Name	Jackson Pollock
Caption	Photographer Hans Namuth extensively documented Pollock's unique painting techniques.
Birthname	Paul Jackson Pollock
Birthdate	January 28, 1912
Birth place	Cody, Wyoming, U.S.
Deathdate	August 11, 1956
Deathplace	Springs, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Field	Painter
Training	Art Students League of New York
Movement	Abstract expressionism
Patrons	Peggy Guggenheim
Influenced by	Thomas Hart Benton, Pablo Picasso

Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956), known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and struggled with alcoholism for most of his life. In 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy.

Pollock died at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related car accident. In December 1956, he was given a memorial retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, and a larger more comprehensive exhibition there in 1967. More recently, in 1998 and 1999, his work was honored with large-scale retrospective exhibitions at MoMA and at The Tate in London.

In 2000, Pollock was the subject of an Academy Award–winning film Pollock directed by and starring Ed Harris.

Early life

Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming in 1912, the youngest of five sons. His parents, Stella May McClure and LeRoy Pollock, grew up in Tingley, Iowa. His father had been born McCoy but took the surname of his neighbors, who adopted him after his own parents had died within a year of one another. Stella and LeRoy Pollock were Presbyterian; the former, Irish; the latter, Scotch-Irish. LeRoy Pollock was a farmer and later a land surveyor for the government. In 1930, following his brother Charles Pollock, he moved to New York City where they both studied under Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League of New York. Benton's rural American subject matter shaped Pollock's work only fleetingly, but his rhythmic use of paint and his fierce independence were more lasting influences.

In attempts to fight his alcoholism, from 1938 through 1941 Pollock underwent Jungian psychotherapy with Dr. Joseph Henderson and later with Dr. Violet Staub de Laszlo in 1941-1942. Henderson made the decision to engage him through his art and had Pollock make drawings, which led to the appearance of many Jungian concepts in his paintings. Recently it has been hypothesized that Pollock might have had bipolar disorder.

The Springs period and the unique technique

]]

In October 1945 Pollock married American painter Lee Krasner, and in November they moved to what is now known as the Pollock-Krasner House and Studio, at 830 Springs Fireplace Road, in Springs on Long Island, NY. Peggy Guggenheim lent them the down payment for the wood-frame house with a nearby barn that Pollock converted into a studio. There he perfected the technique of working with paint which he became permanently identified.

Pollock was introduced to the use of liquid paint in 1936 at an experimental workshop operated in New York City by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. He later used paint pouring as one of several techniques on canvases of the early 1940s, such as "Male and Female" and "Composition with Pouring I." After his move to Springs, he began painting with his canvases laid out on the studio floor, and he developed what was later called his "drip" technique. Therefore, Pollock turned to synthetic resin-based paints called alkyd enamels, which, at that time, was a novel medium. Pollock described this use of household paints, instead of artist’s paints, as "a natural growth out of a need." He used hardened brushes, sticks, and even basting syringes as paint applicators. Pollock's technique of pouring and dripping paint is thought to be one of the origins of the term action painting. With this technique, Pollock was able to achieve a more immediate means of creating art, the paint now literally flowing from his chosen tool onto the canvas. By defying the convention of painting on an upright surface, he added a new dimension, literally, by being able to view and apply paint to his canvases from all directions.

In the process of making paintings in this way, he moved away from figurative representation, and challenged the Western tradition of using easel and brush. He also moved away from the use of only the hand and wrist, since he used his whole body to paint. In 1956, Time magazine dubbed Pollock "Jack the Dripper" as a result of his unique painting style.

"My painting does not come from the easel. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting.

"I continue to get further away from the usual painter's tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc. I prefer sticks, trowels, knives and dripping fluid paint or a heavy impasto with sand, broken glass or other foreign matter added.

"When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of 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.

-- Jackson Pollock, My Painting, 1956

Pollock observed Indian sandpainting demonstrations in the 1940s. Other influences on his dripping technique include the Mexican muralists and Surrealist automatism. Pollock denied "the accident"; he usually had an idea of how he wanted a particular piece to appear. His technique combined the movement of his body, over which he had control, the viscous flow of paint, the force of gravity, and the absorption of paint into the canvas. It was a mixture of controllable and uncontrollable factors. Flinging, dripping, pouring, and spattering, he would move energetically around the canvas, almost as if in a dance, and would not stop until he saw what he wanted to see.

Studies by Taylor, Micolich and Jonas have examined Pollock's technique and have determined that some works display the properties of mathematical fractals. They assert that the works become more fractal-like chronologically through Pollock's career. The authors even speculate that Pollock may have had an intuition of the nature of chaotic motion, and attempted to form a representation of mathematical chaos, more than ten years before "Chaos Theory" itself was proposed. Other experts suggest that Pollock may have merely imitated popular theories of the time in order to give his paintings a depth not previously seen.

.]] In 1950, Hans Namuth, a young photographer, wanted to take pictures (both stills and moving) of Pollock at work. Pollock promised to start a new painting especially for the photographic session, but when Namuth arrived, Pollock apologized and told him the painting was finished. Namuth's comment upon entering the studio:

The 1950s

Pollock's most famous paintings were made during the "drip period" between 1947 and 1950. He rocketed to popular status following an August 8, 1949 four-page spread in Life magazine that asked, "Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?" At the peak of his fame, Pollock abruptly abandoned the drip style.

Pollock's work after 1951 was darker in color, including a collection painted in black on unprimed canvases. This was followed by a return to color, and he reintroduced figurative elements. During this period Pollock had moved to a more commercial gallery and there was great demand from collectors for new paintings. In response to this pressure, along with personal frustration, his alcoholism deepened.

From naming to numbering

Pollock wanted an end to the viewer's search for representational elements in his paintings, and so he abandoned titles and started numbering the paintings instead. Of this, Pollock commented: "...look passively and try to receive what the painting has to offer and not bring a subject matter or preconceived idea of what they are to be looking for." Pollock's wife, Lee Krasner, said Pollock "used to give his pictures conventional titles... but now he simply numbers them. Numbers are neutral. They make people look at a picture for what it is - pure painting." Pollock did not paint at all in 1956. After Pollock's demise at age 44, his widow, Lee Krasner, managed his estate and ensured that Pollock's reputation remained strong despite changing art-world trends. They are buried in Green River Cemetery in Springs with a large boulder marking his grave and a smaller one marking hers.

Legacy

The Pollock-Krasner House and Studio is owned and administered by the Stony Brook Foundation, a non-profit affiliate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Regular tours of the house and studio occur from May through October.

A separate organization, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, was established in 1985. The Foundation functions as the official Estate for both Pollock and his widow Lee Krasner, but also, under the terms of Krasner's will, serves "to assist individual working artists of merit with financial need." The U.S. copyright representative for the Pollock-Krasner Foundation is the Artists Rights Society (ARS).

His papers were donated by Lee Krasner in 1983 to the Archives of American Art. They were later included with Lee Krasner's own papers. The Archives of American Art also houses the Charles Pollock Papers which includes correspondence, photographs, and other files relating to his brother, Jackson Pollock.

Pollock in pop culture & news

In 1960, Ornette Coleman's album Free Jazz featured a Pollock painting as its cover artwork.

In 1973, Blue Poles (Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952), was purchased by the Australian Whitlam Government for the National Gallery of Australia for US $2 million (AU $1.3 million at the time of payment). At the time, this was the highest price ever paid for a modern painting. In the conservative climate of the time, the purchase created a political and media scandal. The painting is now one of the most popular exhibits in the gallery, and is thought to be worth between $100 and $150 million, according to 2006 estimates. It was a centerpiece of the Museum of Modern Art's 1998 retrospective in New York, the first time the painting had returned to America since its purchase.

British indie band the Stone Roses were heavily influenced by Pollock, with their cover artwork being pastiches of his work.

The first lyrics of the 1988 Alice Donut song "American Lips" includes Tomas Antona boasting of having a "Jackson Pollock tattoo on my ass."

In 1999 a CD titled Jackson Pollock Jazz was released and only available at the MOMA. The CD had 17 tracks with selections from Pollock's personal collection of jazz records. The CD has been discontinued.

In 2000, the biographical film Pollock was released. Marcia Gay Harden won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Lee Krasner. The movie was the project of Ed Harris who portrayed Pollock and directed it. He was nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor.

In 2003, twenty-four Pollock-esque paintings and drawings were found in a Wainscott, New York locker. There is an inconclusive ongoing debate about whether or not these works are Pollock originals. Physicists have argued over whether fractals can be used to authenticate the paintings. This would require an analysis of geometric consistency of the paint splatters in Pollock's work at a microscopic level, and would be measured against the finding that patterns in Pollock's paintings increased in complexity with time. Analysis of the synthetic pigments shows that some were not patented until the 1980s, and therefore that it is highly improbable that Pollock could have used such paints.

In November 2006, Pollock's No. 5, 1948 became the world's most expensive painting, when it was sold privately to an undisclosed buyer for the sum of $140,000,000. The previous owner was film and music-producer David Geffen. It is rumored that the current owner is a German businessman and art collector.

Also in 2006 a documentary, Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock? was made concerning Teri Horton, a truck driver who in 1992 bought an abstract painting for the price of five dollars at a thrift store in California. This work may be a lost Pollock painting. If so it would be worth millions; its authenticity, however, remains debated.

The melodic hardcore band Gwen Stacy released a song entitled "I'll Splatter You Like Jackson Pollock" on their 2006 album, The Life I Know, though the lyrics had little to nothing to do with the artist himself.

In September 2009, Henry Adams claimed in Smithsonian Magazine that Pollock had written his name in his famous painting "Mural"

Relationship to Native American art

Pollock stated: “I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk round it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting. This is akin to the methods of the Indian sand painters of the West.”

Critical debate

Pollock's work has always polarized critics and has been the focus of many important critical debates.

In a famous 1952 article in ARTnews, Harold Rosenberg coined the term "action painting," and wrote that "what was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event. The big moment came when it was decided to paint 'just to paint.' The gesture on the canvas was a gesture of liberation from value — political, aesthetic, moral." Many people assumed that he had modeled his "action painter" paradigm on Pollock.

Clement Greenberg supported Pollock's work on formalistic grounds. It fit well with Greenberg's view of art history as a progressive purification in form and elimination of historical content. He therefore saw Pollock's work as the best painting of its day and the culmination of the Western tradition going back via Cubism and Cézanne to Manet.

The critic Robert Coates once derided a number of Pollock’s works as “mere unorganized explosions of random energy, and therefore meaningless.”

Some posthumous exhibitions of Pollock's work were sponsored by the Congress for Cultural Freedom, an organization to promote American culture and values backed by the CIA. Certain left-wing scholars, most prominently Eva Cockcroft, argue that the U.S. government and wealthy elite embraced Pollock and abstract expressionism in order to place the United States firmly in the forefront of global art and devalue socialist realism. In the words of Cockcroft, Pollock became a "weapon of the Cold War".

Painter Norman Rockwell's work Connoisseur also appears to make a commentary on the Pollock style. The painting features what seems to be a rather upright man in a suit standing before a Jackson Pollock-like spatter painting.

Others such as artist, critic, and satirist Craig Brown, have been "astonished that decorative 'wallpaper', essentially brainless, could gain such a position in art history alongside Giotto, Titian, and Velázquez."

Reynold's News in a 1959 headline said, "This is not art — it's a joke in bad taste." (1942) Stenographic Figure Museum of Modern Art (1943) Mural University of Iowa Museum of Art, currently housed at the Figge Art Museum (1943) Moon-Woman Cuts the Circle (1943) The She-Wolf Museum of Modern Art (1943) Blue (Moby Dick) Ohara Museum of Art (1945) Troubled Queen Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1946) Eyes in the Heat Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (1946) The Key Art Institute of Chicago (1946) The Tea Cup Collection Frieder Burda (1946) Shimmering Substance, from The Sounds In The Grass Museum of Modern Art (1947) Portrait of H.M. University of Iowa Museum of Art, currently housed at the Figge Art Museum (1947) Cathedral (1947) Enchanted Forest Peggy Guggenheim Collection (1947) Lucifer San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1948) Painting

(1948) Number 5 (4 ft x 8 ft) Private collection

(1948) Number 8- At Neuburger Museum at the State University of New York at Purchase.

(1948) Composition (White, Black, Blue and Red on White) New Orleans Museum of Art

(1948) Summertime: Number 9A Tate Modern

(1949) Number 1 Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

(1949) Number 3

(1949) Number 10 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1950) Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist) National Gallery of Art (1950) Mural on indian red ground, 1950 Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (1950) Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), 1950 Metropolitan Museum of Art (1950) Number 29, 1950 National Gallery of Canada (1950) One: Number 31, 1950 Museum of Modern Art (1950) No. 32 (1951) Number 7 National Gallery of Art

(1951) Black & White

(1952) Convergence Albright-Knox Art Gallery (1952) Blue Poles: No. 11, 1952 National Gallery of Australia (1953) Portrait and a Dream Dallas Museum of Art (1953) Easter and the Totem The Museum of Modern Art (1953) Ocean Greyness

(1953) The Deep

Notes

See also

All-over painting

References

External links

Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center

Pollock-Krasner Foundation

Pollock art at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

Pollock collection at Guggenheim NY site

Jackson Pollock at The Art Story Foundation

Pollock on Museum Web Paris

Pollock and The Law

National Gallery of Art web feature, includes highlights of Pollock's career, numerous examples of his work, photographs and motion footage of Pollock, plus an in-depth discussion of his 1950 painting Lavender Mist.

Blue Poles at the NGA

One. Number 31, 1950 smARThistory

Jackson Pollock's Number One 1948; How Can We Be Abandoned and Accurate at the Same Time? by Lore Mariano

Fractal Expressionism – the fractal qualities of Pollock's drip paintings.

Understanding Abstract Art by Harley Hahn

Ed Pilkington, Pollock cache may have been painted after artist's death, The Guardian, 30 November 2007

Jackson Pollock Papers at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art

(public domain in Canada)

Museums

Pollock art at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

Pollock collection at Guggenheim NY site

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, California

Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Los Angeles, California

Category:1912 births Category:1956 deaths Category:Abstract expressionist artists Category:American painters Category:Art Students League of New York alumni Category:East Hampton (town), New York Category:Artists from New York Category:Artists from Wyoming Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent Category:People from Chico, California Category:People of the New Deal arts projects Category:Road accident deaths in New York Category:Federal Art Project Category:20th-century painters

Landscape	no
Name	Don McLean
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Donald McLean
Born	October 02, 1945
Instrument	Vocals, guitarbanjo, piano
Genre	Folk, Folk rock
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician
Years active	1969 – present
Url	http://www.don-mclean.com

Donald "Don" McLean, Jr. (born October 2, 1945, New Rochelle, New York) is an American singer-songwriter. He is most famous for the 1971 album American Pie, containing the renowned songs "American Pie" and "Vincent".

Both McLean's grandfather and father were also named Donald McLean. The Buccis, the family of McLean's mother, Elizabeth, came from Abruzzo in central Italy. They left Italy and settled in Port Chester, New York at the end of the 19th century. He has other extended family in Los Angeles and Boston.

Musical roots

As a young teenager, McLean became interested in folk music, particularly the Weavers' 1955 recording At Carnegie Hall. Childhood asthma meant that McLean missed long periods of school, and although he slipped back in his studies, his love of music was allowed to flourish. He often performed shows for family and friends. By age 16 he had bought his first guitar (a Harmony acoustic archtop with a sunburst finish) and begun making contacts in the music business, becoming friends with folk singer Erik Darling, a latter-day member of the Weavers. McLean recorded his first studio sessions (with singer Lisa Kindred) while still in prep school.

McLean graduated from Iona Preparatory School in 1963, and briefly attended Villanova University, dropping out after four months. While at Villanova he became friends with singer/songwriter Jim Croce.

After leaving Villanova, McLean became associated with famed folk music agent Harold Leventhal, and for the next six years performed at venues and events including the Bitter End and the Gaslight Cafe in New York, the Newport Folk Festival, the Cellar Door in Washington, D.C., and the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Concurrently, McLean attended night school at Iona College and received a Bachelors degree in Business Administration in 1968. He turned down a scholarship to Columbia University Graduate School in favour of becoming resident singer at Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY.

In 1968, with the help of a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, McLean began reaching a wider public, with visits to towns up and down the Hudson River. He learned the art of performing from his friend and mentor Pete Seeger. McLean accompanied Seeger on his Clearwater boat trip up the Hudson River in 1969 to protest environmental pollution in the river. During this time McLean wrote songs that would appear on his first album, Tapestry. McLean co-edited the book Songs and Sketches of the First Clearwater Crew with sketches by Thomas B. Allen for which Pete Seeger wrote the foreword. Seeger and McLean sang "Shenandoah" on the 1974 Clearwater album.

Recording career

Early breakthrough

McLean recorded his first album, Tapestry, in 1969 in Berkeley, California during the student riots. After being rejected by 34 labels, the album was released by Mediarts and attracted good reviews but little notice outside the folk community.

McLean's major break came when Mediarts was taken over by United Artists Records thus securing for his second album, American Pie, the promotion of a major label. The album spawned two No. 1 hits in the title song and "Vincent". American Pie's success made McLean an international star and renewed interest in his first album, which charted more than two years after its initial release.

American Pie

Don McLean's most famous composition, "American Pie", is a sprawling, impressionistic ballad inspired partly by the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) in a plane crash in 1959. The song would popularize the expression "The Day the Music Died" in reference to this event. McLean has stated that the lyrics are also somewhat autobiographical and present an abstract story of his life from the mid-1950s until the time he wrote the song in the late 1960s. Singer Don McLean is said to have composed his "American Pie" sitting at a table in the Tin & Lint, a bar on Caroline Street, in 1969. A plaque marks the table today.

The song was recorded on 26 May 1971 and a month later received its first radio airplay on New York’s WNEW-FM and WPLJ-FM to mark the closing of The Fillmore East, a famous New York concert hall. "American Pie" reached number one on the U.S. Billboard magazine charts for four weeks in 1972, and remains McLean's most successful single release. The single also topped the Billboard Easy Listening survey. It is also the longest song to reach No. 1 with a running time of 8:36. Some stations played only part one of the original split-sided single release.

Twenty-nine years later, pop singer Madonna released a truncated dance-pop cover version of the song. In response, Don McLean said: "I have received many gifts from God but this is the first time I have ever received a gift from a goddess."

In 2010, John Ondrasik - the singer-songwriter known as Five for Fighting - released the single "Slice" from the album of the same name. The song is a tribute to "American Pie": a nostalgic look at how it once captivated our collective ears, minds and voices, and an expression of hope that our increasing individuality hasn't dulled our ability to 'sing the same song'.

In 2001 "American Pie" was voted No. 5 in a poll of the 365 Songs of the Century compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The top five were: "Over the Rainbow" by Judy Garland, "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby, "This Land Is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie, "Respect" by Aretha Franklin and "American Pie".

Subsequent recordings

McLean’s third album, Don McLean, included the song "The Pride Parade" that provides an insight into McLean’s immediate reaction to stardom. McLean told Melody Maker magazine in 1973 that Tapestry was an album by someone previously concerned with external situations. American Pie combines externals with internals and the resultant success of that album makes the third one (Don McLean) entirely introspective."

The fourth album, Playin' Favorites was a top-40 hit in the UK in 1973 and included the Irish folk classic, "Mountains of Mourne" and Buddy Holly’s "Everyday", a live rendition of which returned McLean to the UK Singles Chart. McLean said, "The last album (Don McLean) was a study in depression whereas the new one (Playin' Favorites) is almost the quintessence of optimism, with a feeling of "Wow, I just woke up from a bad dream."

1977 saw a brief liaison with Arista Records that yielded the Prime Time album before, in 1978, McLean’s career changed direction and he started recording in Nashville with Elvis Presley’s backing singers, The Jordanaires, and many of Elvis’s musicians. The result was Chain Lightning and the international Number 1, "Crying". The early 1980s saw further chart successes in the US with "Since I Don't Have You", a new recording of "Castles in the Air" and "It's Just the Sun".

In 1987, the release of the country-based Love Tracks album gave rise to the hit singles "Love in My Heart" (a top-10 in Australia), "Can't Blame the Wreck on the Train" (US country No. 49), and "Eventually". The latter two songs were written by Houston native Terri Sharp.

In 1991, EMI reissued the "American Pie" single in the United Kingdom and McLean performed on Top of the Pops.

In 1992, previously unreleased songs became available on Favorites and Rarities while Don McLean Classics featured new studio recordings of "Vincent" and "American Pie".

Don McLean has continued to record new material including River of Love in 1995 on Curb Records and, more recently, the albums You've Got to Share, Don McLean Sings Marty Robbins and The Western Album on his own Don McLean Music label.

A new album, Addicted to Black, was released in May 2009 and is available for purchase at his North American concert performances and is available on his website. In addition, McLean is expecting to tour in Europe and Australia in 2010.

Other songs

McLean's other well-known songs include:

"And I Love You So" was covered by Elvis Presley, Helen Reddy, Shirley Bassey, Glen Campbell, Engelbert Humperdinck, Howard Keel and a 1973 hit for Perry Como

"Vincent", a tribute to the 19th century Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh. Although it only reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, it proved to be a huge hit worldwide. It was a #1 hit single in the UK Singles Chart. This song was covered by NOFX on their album titled: 45 or 46 Songs That Weren't Good Enough to Go on Our Other Records, and also appears on the Fat Wreck Chords compilation Survival of the Fattest. Vincent was also covered by Josh Groban on his 2001 debut album. "Castles in the Air", which McLean recorded twice. His 1981 re-recording was a top-40 hit, reaching #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1981. "Wonderful Baby", a tribute to Fred Astaire that Astaire himself recorded. Primarily rejected by pop stations, it reached #1 on the Billboard Easy Listening survey.

"Superman's Ghost", a tribute to George Reeves, who portrayed Superman on television in the 1950s

"The Grave", a song that McLean had written about the Vietnam War, was covered by George Michael in 2003 in protest against the Iraq War.

The American Pie album features a version of Psalm 137, entitled Babylon. The song was arranged by McLean and Lee Hays (of The Weavers). Boney M had a number one hit in the UK with a similar song in 1978 under the title Rivers of Babylon, which was not based on this one, although using the same text from Psalm 137.

In 1980, McLean had an international number one hit with a cover of the Roy Orbison classic, "Crying". It was only after the record became a success overseas that it was released in the U.S. The single hit #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981. Breckman and McLean have penned competing renditions of the origins of this feud, both of which are available online.

Later work and honors

In 1991, Don McLean returned to the UK top 20 with a re-issue of "American Pie".

Iona College conferred an honorary doctorate on McLean in 2001.

In February 2002, "American Pie" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

In 2004, McLean was inaugurated into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Garth Brooks presented the award and said "Don McLean his work, like the man himself is very deep and very compassionate. His pop anthem 'American Pie' is a cultural phenomenon".

In 2007, the biography The Don McLean Story: Killing Us Softly With His Songs was published. Biographer Alan Howard conducted extensive interviews for this, the only book-length biography of the often reclusive McLean to date.

In 2008, New York City radio station Q104.3 FM WAXQ named Don McLean's "American Pie" number 37 in their 2008 Top 1,043 Songs Of All Time listener-generated countdown.

Discography

Albums

^AChain Lightning also peaked at #3 on the RPM Country Albums chart in Canada.

Compilations

Singles

;Notes

^AThe original version of "Castles in the Air" was included on the Tapestry album. In February 1971, it was released as the first single from the album and reached #40 on the Billboard Easy Listening / Adult Contemporary chart. After the success of the "American Pie" single, "Castles in the Air" was included as the B-side to its follow-up, "Vincent", and received enough radio airplay to reach the Hot 100 chart as a "flip". McLean's 1981 version of the song first appeared on his album Believers, and later replaced the original version on some copies of Tapestry.

Rarities

Quotation

NME - June 1972

References

External links

The Official Web Site of Don McLean and American Pie

[ Allmusic Entry]

Tom Redmond - Working with Chet Atkins: an interview with Don McLean

Category:1945 births Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Living people Category:People from Westchester County, New York Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American musicians of Scottish descent Category:American musicians of Italian descent Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American male singers Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Pantheists Category:Iona College (New York) alumni Category:Ballad musicians Category:People from New Rochelle, New York