Jackson Pollock was an American painter born in 1912 who helped develop abstract expressionist painting. He studied art in New York and married, moving to Long Island where he created his most famous works. Pollock was known for laying canvases on the floor and dripping, pouring, and splattering paint onto them in an abstract and spontaneous style that came to be known as "action painting." Some of his most famous masterpieces include Blue (Moby Dick), Cathedral, and Lavender Mist: Number 1. Pollock pioneered new painting techniques and was the first American abstract painter to gain recognition in Europe.