Artist

Jackson Mac Low

Portrait of Jackson Mac Low
Portrait of Jackson Mac Low

American, 1922–2004

Jackson Mac Low was an American artist. 3 works are cataloged here, principally at Museum of Modern Art. Jackson Mac Low was born in Chicago.

Jackson Mac Low (September 12, 1922 – December 8, 2004) was an American poet, performance artist, composer and playwright, known to most readers of poetry as a practitioner of systematic chance operations and other non-intentional compositional methods in his work, which Mac Low first experienced in the musical work of John Cage, Earle Brown, and Christian Wolff. He was married to the artist Iris Lezak from 1962 to 1978, and to the poet Anne Tardos from 1990 until his death. An early affiliate of Fluxus (he co-published An Anthology of Chance Operations) and stylistic progenitor of the Language poets, Mac Low cultivated ties with an eclectic array of notable figures in the postwar American avant-garde, including Nam June Paik, Kathy Acker, Allen Ginsberg, and Arthur Russell.

His work has been published in more than 90 anthologies and periodicals and he had readings, exhibits, performances, lectures, and broadcasts in North and South America, Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

Works by Jackson Mac Low

Collections represented

Catalog records compiled from museum open-access collections; the artworks shown are in the public domain. Spotted an error in this record? Tell us.