Hans Namuth filmed Jackson Pollock painting in 1950.
Namuth began photographing Pollock in July 1950 after being encouraged to take the artist seriously. Lee Krasner, Pollock’s wife, recognized that documenting his studio process could help audiences understand his work. Namuth ultimately made more than 500 photographs and two films during the project.
The footage showed Pollock’s celebrated drip technique as a physical but deliberate process. For the color sequences, Pollock painted on a large sheet of glass while Namuth filmed from below, an unusual setup that made the movement of paint visible. The sessions took place around Pollock’s Long Island home.
A common mix-up is the year 1956, when Pollock died in a car crash—not the year of Namuth’s filming. Namuth’s images later influenced younger artists by shifting attention from an artwork’s finished surface to the act of making it, helping anticipate the rise of Process Art.