The relationship between Beat literature and the visual arts mirrors the relationship the Beats had with other areas of society. While such famous Beat authors as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs demanded attention for their work, they were not necessarily the first advocates or practitioners of the artistic philosophy that came to be associated with Beat writers. However, the notoriety they gained as well as the media attention their actions and work generated allowed other artists, who had hitherto been working outside the mainstream, opportunities to merge into a larger alternative movement that revolutionized art and literature. Although many artists and painters clearly affiliated themselves with the Beats, others had philosophical common ground with them—for example, they, too, wanted to use their art in new and non-traditional ways, rebelling against established standards, and working to bring “high” art to ordinary people by addressing subjects relevant to society in their own works. Others came to reject the association and the label of “Beat,” dubbing themselves “Ratbastards” in protest: “Ratbastard” was also the title of one of artist Bruce Connor’s first assemblages. One of the most important predecessors to the so-called Beat artists was Jackson Pollack, whose artistic modus operandi was similar to that of the Beats: experimental, driven by experience and sensation, and anti-academic.
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