Episode 42: The Beat Era: Pollock’s Drips and How They Changed the Art World
Our conversation about the Beats continues by revisiting when Jackson Pollock revolutionized art on the coasts and how the media brought that revolution to Middle America. We discuss different spots in the U.S. where the Beats found themselves and name some of their wider influences including the abstract expressionist painters and jazz musicians they shared creative and social spaces with.
E X T R A S :
(Top to bottom): The original LIFE Magazine article featuring Jackson Pollock; Pollock’s One: Number 31, 1950; a record from the Greenwich Village hipster hangout Café Bizarre; a neighborhood map of Greenwich Village; Six Gallery’s poster for the poetry reading when Ginsberg’s Howl debuted; a collection of Beat icons (including Allen Ginsberg (center with beard and glasses) and Peter Orlovsky (seated in front of him with hat and glasses)) gathering in front of City Lights Books in San Francisco; mural in downtown Black Mountain, North Carolina
More about Jackson Pollock
Trailer for the film Pollock (YouTube video)
MoMA write-up about “One: Number 31, 1950”
Hans Namuth’s 1951 film (YouTube video)
More About The Beats in…
New York City
Greenwich Village in the 1950s (YouTube video)
Beat Generation in New York: A Walking Tour of Jack Kerouac’s City (by Bill Morgan, published by City Lights Books)
An Architect Explores Greenwich Village (YouTube video)
San Francisco
“Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s place in San Francisco literary history” (SF Chronicle article)
The Beat Generation in San Francisco: A Literary Tour (by Bill Morgan, published by City Lights Books)
North Carolina
“The Story of Black Mountain College—and a Look at Its Continuing Legacy” (Charlotte Magazine article)