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10 Facts About Charles Pollock

1.

Charles Cecil Pollock was an American abstract painter and the eldest brother of artist Jackson Pollock.

2.

Charles Pollock's father, who was born as a McCoy, had taken the surname of his parents' neighbors, who adopted him after his own parents died within a year of each other.

3.

In 1926 Charles Pollock moved to New York to study painting.

4.

In 1930, he and another brother, Frank Charles Pollock, persuaded their brother Jackson to join them there, effectively launching his own artistic career.

5.

Until the mid 1940s, Charles Pollock followed the social realist movement, studying under Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League of New York.

6.

Charles Pollock was inspired by the works of the Mexican Mural Renaissance, particularly the works of Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco.

7.

Charles Pollock was then selected as supervisor of the mural painting and graphic arts division of the Federal Art Project, settling in Detroit, Michigan.

8.

Charles Pollock abandoned social realism in the 1940s, and turned to abstract expressionism and color field painting.

9.

Some attribute the shift to the influence of his famous brother Jackson, although Charles Pollock painted in a very calm and organized manner unlike Jackson's drip painting style.

10.

Charles Pollock had painted public works projects for the Michigan State University in the early 1940s, when it was then Michigan State College; three of his murals can be seen in the Fairchild Theatre foyer.