Art Inspires Life: 7 Fantastic Films About Artists

Pollock (2000)

The directorial debut of Ed Harris (A Beautiful Mind) sees the actor play American abstract painter Jackson Pollock, in an Academy Award nominated performance. It is based on the book Jackson Pollock: An American Saga by Gregory White Smith and Steven Naifeh, and was adapted by Barbara Turner (The Company) and Susan Emshwiller (In The Land Of Milk And Honey).

The story of Jackson Pollock is one of an artist misunderstood and under-appreciated in his time. Battling neurosis and alcoholism, he struggles to deal with conflicting feelings about his brother being drafted to fight in World War II, while he himself is deemed unfit to serve. Pollock went on to marry Lee Krasner – an influential artist in her own right, and played here by Marcia Gay Harden in an Oscar-winning role – though their marriage was fraught with tensions and resentments.

Pollock stages unsuccessful exhibitions, tries to court the media – though it leaves him feeling fraudulent – and engages in infidelities, all the while swimming against the tide of ‘conventional’ and ‘commercial’ modern art. These frustrations cause his neurosis and alcoholism to fold in on one another as he pushes Krasner further away, until his story reaches its inevitable, tragic end.