On the floor I am more at easiness, I feel nigher, more a portion of the picture, since this manner I can walk around in it, work from the four sides and be literally `in ‘ the picture.
— Jackson Pollock, 1947.
Pollock, Jackson ( 1912-56 ) . American painter, the dominating figure of the Abstract Expressionist motion.
He began to analyze painting in 1929 at the Art Students ‘ League, New York, under the Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton. During the 1930s he worked in the mode of the Regionalists, being influenced besides by the Mexican muralist painters ( Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros ) and by certain facets of Surrealism. From 1938 to 1942 he worked for the Federal Art Project. By the mid 1940s he was painting in a wholly abstract mode, and the `drip and splash ‘ manner for which he is best known emerged with some brusqueness in 1947. Alternatively of utilizing the traditional easel he affixed his canvas to the floor or the wall and poured and dripped his pigment from a can ; alternatively of utilizing coppices he manipulated it with `sticks, trowels or knives ‘ ( to utilize his ain words ) , sometimes obtaining a heavy impasto by an alloy of `sand, broken glass or other foreign affair ‘ . This mode of Action painting had in common with Surrealist theories of automatism that it was supposed by creative persons and critics likewise to ensue in a direct look or disclosure of the unconscious tempers of the creative person.
Pollock ‘s name is besides associated with the debut of the All-over manner of painting which avoids any points of accent or identifiable parts within the whole canvas and therefore wantonnesss the traditional thought of composing in footings of dealingss among parts. The design of his picture had no relation to the form or size of the canvas — so in the finished work the canvas was sometimes docked or trimmed to accommodate the image. All these features were of import for the new American picture which matured in the late fortiess and early 1950s. Easter and the Totem
During the 1950s Pollock continued to bring forth nonliteral or quasi-figurative black and white plants and finely modulated pictures in rich impasto every bit good as the pictures in the new all-over manner. He was strongly supported by advanced critics, but was besides capable to much maltreatment and irony as the lupus erythematosus
ader of a still small appreciated manner ; in 1956 Time magazine called him `Jack the Dripper ‘ .
By the sixtiess, nevertheless, he was by and large recognized as the most of import figure in the most of import motion of this century in American picture, but a motion from which creative persons were already in reaction ( Post-Painterly Abstraction ) . His unhappy personal life ( he was an alcoholic ) and his premature decease in a auto clang contributed to his legendary position. In 1944 Pollock married Lee Krasner ( 1911-84 ) , who was an Abstract Expressionist painter of some differentiation, although it was merely after her hubby ‘s decease that she received serious critical acknowledgment.
Interrupting the ice
It was Jackson Pollock who blazed an amazing trail for other Abstract Expressionist painters to follow. De Kooning said, “ He broke the ice ” , an puzzling phrase proposing that Pollock showed what art could go with his 1947 trickle pictures.
It has been suggested that Pollock was influenced by Native American sand pictures, made by dribbling thin lines of coloured sand onto a horizontal surface. It was non until 1947 that Pollock began his “ action ” pictures, influenced by Surrealist thoughts of “ psychic automatism ” ( direct look of the unconscious ) . Pollock would repair his canvas to the floor and trickle pigment from a can utilizing a assortment of objects to pull strings the pigment.
The Moon-Woman Cuts the Circle ( 1943 ; 109.5 x 104 centimeter ( 43 x 41 in ) ) is an early Pollock, but it shows the passionate strength with which he pursued his personal vision. This picture is based on a North American Indian myth. It connects the Moon with the feminine and shows the originative, cut downing power of the female mind. It is non easy to state what we are really looking at: a face rises before us, vibrant with power, though possibly the image does non profit from laboured accounts. If we can react to this art at a reasonably crude degree, so we can besides react to a great abstract work such as Lavender Mist. If we can non, at least we can appreciate the merger of colourss and the Expressionist feeling of urgency that is communicated. Moon-Woman may be a feathery harridan or a great abstract form ; the point is that it works on both degrees.
