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in 1947 jackson pollock started dripping
flinging scattering and pouring paint
onto canvases spread across the floor
some thought it was lunacy but the most
influential voices thought it genius
that's the legacy that has prevailed
that's why you've heard of him and see
his work in museums that's why a single
one of his paintings can sell for 50
million dollars but when you find
yourself in front of one of his
paintings now what do you do with it how
do you look at this and derive some sort
of something from it why does it matter
and what does it mean now this is the
case for jackson pollock
paul jackson pollock was born in 1912
and cody wyoming moved around the
southwest with his family attended high
school in los angeles and landed in new
york in 1930 to pursue art encouraged by
his older brother charles pollock
studied at the art students league under
american regionalist thomas hart benton
whose representational style he would go
on to react against but whose rhythmic
structure and contrast of light and dark
the young artist internalized his eyes
were trained on the usual suspects of
european modernism including of course
picasso whom pollock once cursed saying
that bastard he misses nothing he looked
to the mexican muralists like jose
clemente orozco and also david alfaro
sikeros whose experimental workshop
pollock joined in 1936. sikeros believed
the paintbrush to be an implement of
hair and wood in an age of steel and
that revolutionary art required new
materials like automobile lacquer and
paint thinner and innovative techniques
like airbrushing stenciling flinging
paint and controlled accidents pollock
incorporated some of these lessons at
the time but drew from many sources his
southwestern childhood had sparked his
interest in native american art he
visited moma's 1941 show indian art of
the united states several times
attending a demo of navajo painting made
by dropping colored sand on the ground
in the early 40s pollock was making
paintings with imagery derived from
mythology and from his knowledge of
jungian analysis the surrealist interest
in the unconscious attracted him as well
and he was certainly familiar with their
embrace of automatism or yielding
control of the making process to let the
unconscious mind hold sway so it wasn't
like pollock's drip paintings came out
of nowhere others were doing it too our
shield gorky dripped in 1944 hans
hoffman did around the same time and
pollock was trying it out in his
paintings as well but his first big
break came in 1942 with this kind of
work which was selected for a show at
peggy guggenheim's gallery art of this
century having been judged by the likes
of pete mondrian who having fled europe
during world war ii claimed this was the
most interesting work he'd seen in
america so far pollock's first solo show
garnered much attention his pictures
described as archaic tribal and of
elemental power curator james johnson
sweeney described his talent as volcanic
it has fire it is unpredictable it is
undisciplined what we need is more young
men who paint from inner impulsion
guckenheim also commissioned this new
talent to create a mural for her new
york townhouse and he produced an epic
19-foot long canvas that cemented his
rising star status and gave a glimpse of
the rhythmic forms and loose brushwork
that would follow pollock's other 1942
break was meeting painter lee krasner
they married in 45 and moved out to long
island near east hampton where they set
up studios hers in the house and his in
the barn pollock continued to begin his
paintings with totemic and mythological
subjects but painted over them with
layers so thick that the original forms
were mostly indistinguishable by 47
pollock was spreading his canvases on
the floor sometimes his initial layer
involved brushwork but successive layers
were built up with poured dripped and
scattered paint artists oils enamel
house paint and aluminum radiator paint
he used sticks trowels and pallet knives
sometimes strings sand or nails entered
the mix narrative content began to
disappear until all that was visible was
the splatters and skeins of paint we all
now think of when we think of pollock
the titles dropped away too and he began
to number his paintings like musical
compositions there was no sketching in
advance but it wasn't just paint flung
willy-nilly at least most of the time to
a considerable degree he controlled his
flow of paint and distribution of color
he knew what kinds of motions and what
tools and paints produced certain
results he decided what to cover over
and what to let show through his
all-over compositions betray a keen
awareness of the edges and after jags of
activity he would stop and take stock of
what he'd done before entering back in
or deciding the work was resolved
pollock once responded to a critic's
remarks by telegraming time magazine
saying simply no chaos damn it this new
work did have its critics it was
described as a child's contour map of
the battle of gettysburg and a mop of
tangled hair then and now people likened
his dripping to bodily spillage vomit
pea ejaculate but there were many who
championed this radical departure
notably the museum of modern art and art
critic clement greenberg who believed
pollock's drip paintings to be the
culmination of the advancement of art
since the dawn of modernism charting
quote the dissolution of the pictorial
into sheer texture into apparently sheer
sensation pollock became a larger than
life figure thanks to media attention
and the revelatory images made by
photographer hans namath of pollock
painting in 1950. namath also made a
short film of pollock at work outdoors
and gave us the unforgettable view from
below of pollock painting on glass art
critic harold rosenberg called this kind
of work action painting as pollock was
among a number of artists at the time
for whom the canvas could be considered
quote an arena in which to act the term
abstract expressionism began to be used
to describe the work of these artists
who pursued abstraction as a means to
convey emotion each with their own
distinct gesture and approach world war
ii had been hell and for pollock and his
ilk still lifes and portraits were now
insufficient echoing sikeros pollock
explained new needs need new techniques
today painters do not have to go to a
subject matter outside themselves they
work from a different source they work
from within he had a productive pocket
of years and would return to
representation with a series of
paintings from 51 and 52 made with black
enamel and a turkey baster oscillating
between abstraction and figuration but
in his last years he made work only
sporadically struggling with the
alcoholism that plagued him throughout
his life pollock was at the wheel when
he died in a car accident in 1956 at the
age of 44 throwing his mistress from the
car and killing her friend
then and now pollock's brief but
brilliant career was emblematic of the
post-war american boom a country no
longer culturally subservient to europe
but defining its own terms pollux
symbolized american fearlessness and
freedom so much so that his work and
that of his peers was promoted during
the cold war as proof of what was
possible in a democracy no matter that
pollock had been a member of the
communist party there's a tendency to
think of pollock's breakthrough as
cutting the 20th century into halves a
before and after in 1958 artist alan
caprao wrote he created some magnificent
paintings but he also destroyed painting
of course he didn't destroy painting he
destroyed some sense of painting as a
grand progression of movements from this
to that the medium has persisted finding
other innovations and other audiences
caprao saw pollock's legacy as pointing
the way forward from painting to
everything else leaving us quote at the
point where we must become preoccupied
with and even dazzled by the space and
objects of our everyday life as pollock
reacted against benton many artists
reacted against pollock against gesture
against expression as quickly as it
appeared pollock's signature mark making
became cliched representing an era in
american history when the art was macho
and large the art world was insular and
small and the reputed artists were
almost all male and white but where does
this leave us today when looking at his
work pollock recommended we quote not
look for but look passively and try to
receive what the painting has to offer
and not bring a subject matter or
preconceived idea to it of course no one
comes to art or to anything this way but
perhaps you might appreciate the work he
suggested quote just as music is enjoyed
after a while you may like it or you may
not ornette coleman likened his own
improvisational jazz to pollock's work
and said it's not random he knows what
he's doing he knows when he's finished
but still it's free form what happens in
the artist studio is almost always a
mystery training and expertise and
persistence synthesized over time into a
picture or a thing but pollock shows
what happened to get us here more
distinctly than anyone had before it's
clear that a person was here and
traversed this canvas and now he's not
paint that was once liquid and flowing
now hardened and frozen in time pollock
called it energy and motion made visible
and memories arrested in space while the
largeness of his persona has faded
pollock certainly isn't absent when
you're with the work it's fun and almost
irresistible to imagine being pollock
there are lots of things you can think
about when looking at this work how a
lot of painting tries to hide the fact
that it is indeed made of a viscous
substance while a pollock allows the
paint to revel in its true liquid self
you can think about how the picture
plane is at once shallow and dense and
also overwhelmingly expansive pointing
to the infinity that lies beyond you can
make note of the variety of markings and
textures and the tension between
planning and accident what's the
difference really between drawing
directly on the canvas or in the space
just above it everything and nothing it
turns out that bit of distance
relinquishes authorship and allows
gravity and chance and life to play a
part it's in that distance that we
reside when with his work in that
nebulous area between conscious and
unconscious thought and action where so
much of life can be found these pictures
are not easy to read there is no
beginning and no end really an idea
pollock considered a compliment in these
lines and layers and residues there is
new information blotting out old there
are vast networks of markings what
capral called the endless tangle like an
ocean or a galaxy we must settle to a
great degree in their inscrutability in
a similar sense we must also live with
and struggle to grasp as pollux so
desperately did the inscrutability
within
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