Painter Jackson Pollock dropping paint on to a canvas

Jackson Pollock was an American artist at the forefront of the Abstract Expressionism movement and in 1947 developed a new painting style that involved pouring and dripping paint onto large unstretched canvases laid on the ground. The paintings appeared to have no subject and their huge scale, power and unconventional technique were often confronting to viewers.

In 1973, the National Gallery of Australia purchased Pollock’s painting Blue Poles. The painting cost $1.3 million — the most ever paid for an American painting in the world at that time.