Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Jackson Pollock explained his motivation (in a William Wright radio interview) as follows: "...today painters do not have to go to a subject matter outside of themselves. Most modern painters work from a different source. They work from within. The modern artist, it seems to me, is working and expressing an inner world."

Background and Historical Information        

Jackson Pollock was an American abstract expressionist painter who was famous for innovative "action paintings". Instead of careful brush strokes, Jackson Pollock dripped, poured, and splattered paint. As Pollock experimented and developed his distinctive techniques, his paintings became ever larger and more dramatic. He would unroll large canvases onto the floor of his studio and work on them from all sides. Occasionally he would have to step carefully onto the canvas, or lean out over it. (Sometimes he even left handprints in the paint!)

Jackson Pollock explained an important aspect of his technique:
"When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of get-acquainted period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well."

How did Jackson Pollock develop his unique and original style? Pollock had studied classical drawing and composition, and also American "regionalist" painting styles, but as he studied he found himself drawn to produce larger murals. In need of a steady paying job through the latter part of the Great Depression and the World War II years, he painted murals for the Works Progress Administration's "Federal Art Project". After eight years of painting murals, he quit to work full time in his own studio. Although he had experimented with dripping paint onto flat canvases as early as 1936, it wasn't until 1947 that this technique took precedence. Pollock described this technique as "direct" painting. He liked to compare it to American Indian "sand paintings", where colored or pigmented sand is methodically arranged on the floor in temporary ritual exhibitions.

Meeting, falling in love with, and marrying exceptional fellow artist Lee Krasner gave Jackson Pollock more stability and happiness. Her support led to his great success, including being discovered and championed by Peggy Guggenheim and her famous gallery "Art of This Century". Jackson Pollock became one of the most famous living painters in America when he was featured in Life magazine on August 8, 1949.

In 1951 Jackson Pollock's style shifted in emphasis. He stopped making totally non-representational images, and reintroduced figurative references to human and animal forms. He explained: "When you're working out of your unconscious, figures are bound to emerge." He continued trying new things, like temporarily giving up colors to create a series of striking black paintings on unprimed canvas. When he returned to painting in color, his gestures were richer and imagery was once again veiled elusively behind layers upon layers of paint. Ironically, even as Jackson Pollock's career became more successful in terms of fame and money, he became more self-destructive. He had essentially stopped painting by 1956, when at the age of 44 he went on a drunken-drive, crashed his car, and died.