- A tragic icon of Abstract Expressionism, Jackson Pollock took influences from Picasso and Mexican surrealism and developed his own way of seeing, interpreting, and expressing. Though his name inevitably conjures up images of the drip paintings for which he is most famous, this technique was only developed midway through his career. The progression from his earlier work to his final "action" paintings - a veritable revolution of painting as a concept - reveals the genius of this tortured artist whom many call the greatest modern American painter.