For those of you tired of visiting museums or craving an interactive art history experience with your children, visit the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center this summer and observe art history in its place of origin.
While the estate and former studio of abstract expressionist pioneer Jackson Pollock and his wife and fellow artist Lee Krasner is open year-round to the public, it also offers a special workshop for children during the summer where they get to paint like Pollock in the very spot that he did more than half a century ago.
“I call it a little bit of art history mixed with a lot of fun,” says Karyn Mannix, a local artist who has led workshop for five years.
Guests and children are welcomed to a tour of the modest home where Pollock and Krasner worked, played and lived; peering into the bedroom they shared, glancing at the black-and-white photos of the couple that line the crisp white walls. The tour offers a glimpse into the life of the artist, as opposed to the paintings, which Pollock said have a life of their own.
The tour also offers a rare film of Pollock in action in the backyard of the house, dripping paint on a glass canvas as he explains his careful and calculated painting method; a method that is often mistaken for chaos. Shot by Hans Namuth, a Hamptons photographer who documented the painter in action in the late 40s, the film lends an exciting new dimension to the appreciation of Pollock’s work—even for kids.
The highlight of the tour comes with entering the unassuming wooden shack tucked away on the left side of the property—Pollock’s preserved studio, where the artist’s trademark paint drips and spatters have seeped into the floorboards, becoming part of the building’s DNA, like initials etched into the side of a tree. Dribbles and splashes collected over time look like one of Pollock’s paintings, transforming the studio floor into a work of art in itself.
After the tour and video, children and guests are brought out to the house’s sprawling backyard, where they create their own Pollock-style drip paintings on the quiet property overlooking Accabonac Creek.
Be sure to wear old clothes, as turkey basters become loaded cannons when filled with paint in the hands of children–no one is safe from the errant glob of color. The splat of bubbling paint onto the canvas can be heard as tiny paint-soaked hands reach for turkey basters and tongue depressors and plot their next move to form the personal work of art. When the fun is over, Mannix glances at one of her new young artists, covered in paint. “You look like a Jackson Pollock painting!” she says.
Tours are offered throughout the summer on Thursday and Friday from 10 – 11:30 a.m. 830 Springs-Fireplace Rd., East Hampton. 631-329-2811.