Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) grew up in Arizona and California. His father, Leroy, was a road surveyor for the government. During the summer of 1927, Jackson and his brother Sanford joined their father’s crew and helped build a dirt road to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. In this snapshot, the Pollock men contemplate a remarkable vista still inaccessible to most Americans. A year later, Pollock moved to New York. He later attributed memories of western landscapes to his expressive artistic vision.
This snapshot is currently on view in our exhibition, Off the Beaten Track: A Road Trip through the Archives of American Art, on view through June 3 in our Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery in Washington, D.C.