Jackson Pollock

Tate Gallery, London, until 6 June

Jackson Pollock was the quintessential “action painter.” A muscular man stooping over canvasses he'd laid on the ground, he dripped and flung paint in the white T shirt and faded jeans immortalised in iconic portraits. He had appropriated this “uniform” long before Bruce Springsteen wore it. Indeed, his very “Americaness” prompted claims that he was not a great painter at all but a stooge for the New York art scene elite, set up to rival the European tradition, in particular Picasso. Certainly, it is difficult to …