Jackson Pollock and Modern Art - Essay Example

Why Jackson Pollock is important in the history of Modern Art Jackson Pollock was perhaps the most influential American painter of the Twentieth Century, and the leading figure in the abstract expressionist movement. While trained in representational work, he was influenced by viewing exhibitions of Picasso and Surrealist Art and ended up developing both his own form and technique for creating that form in the years after WWII. Pollock is important for a number of reasons: his development form representational to symbolic art, his unique technique and his influence on a host of other painters. One important feature of Jackson Pollock was the fact that he "lived" the clich of an artist almost to perfection. He was "a roughshod, ill-mannered, prodigiously ambitious, aggressive, alcoholic, tormented artist . . . ." (Toynton, 2002) This image is important to an interpretation of the apparently chaotic nature of much of Pollock's works, and the technique that led to them. However, as is often the case with creative artists of all sorts, and particularly painters such as Pollock, there was a method to his madness. As Toynton (2003) has pointed out, films of Pollock creating his paintings clearly show that even the most abstract of them start as figurative works and only move into the abstract as they develop. Pollock moved his canvas from the easel to the floor, thus enabling him to work on much larger canvases with greater ease than before, and also to see them from multiple points of view. In one revealing statement he talked about his technique and why he used it: My painting does not come from the easel. I hardly ever stretch the canvas before painting. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting. (Varnedoe, 5) It is interesting to note that Pollock takes an intense and yet casual approach to his painting. Thus the fact that he does not go through the often laborious process of stretching the canvas before painting on it, but rather merely tacking it to a wall or floor illustrates the casual, almost primitive method of preparation. At the same time Pollock becomes more intensely involved with the painting, as if he were actually a part of it: I continue to get further away from the usual painter's tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc. I prefer sticks, trowels, knives and dripping fluid paint or a heavy impasto with sand, broken glass or other foreign matter added. 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 fear of 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. (Varnedoe, 23) The idea of being "in" the painting is of course hardly new to Pollock, but the fact that his technique apparently fitted into his emotional and intellectual attachment to the painting is. His physical technique: standing on and thus within the painting, had a profound effect both upon his creations and upon generations of creative artists in general and painters in particular, for years both during and after his lifetime. Pollock hinted, although never explicitly stated, that he was influenced by Native American sand paintings, which are made by trickling thin lines of colored sand onto a flat surface. After WWII, in 1947 Pollock began what he called his "action paintings", which were at least partially informed by the surrealist ideas of "psychic automatism". This automatism was meant to be a direct expression of the unconscious. A direct expression of something which is, by definition, unknowable to the conscious mind might seem a contradiction in terms. However, Pollock was perhaps peculiarly attune to the normally hidden recesses of his mind because of a severe depression that he was treated for much of his life. The fact that Pollock's works started as figurative pieces and then moved into abstract forms, often ending as some of the most abstract major works of art ever produced, perhaps reflects the fact that his creativity involved a move from conscious creation into his sub- and then un-conscious. While a controversial idea, this would explain his liking for moving the painting to the floor and almost literally becoming a part of it. As a reflection of his unconscious it was perhaps further within Pollock than his conscious mind, with all its complications, depressions and alcoholism. A good example of the utterly personal and yet paradoxically universal nature of Pollock's art is his 1943 painting The Moon-Woman Cuts the Circle. Based on an old Native American myth the feminine is associated with the moon, and the "slashing power of the female psyche" (beatmuseum, 2006) There is an urgency and a primitive nature to this painting that exemplifies the whole Abstract Expressionist movement, and yet also a subtlety to the manner in which the half-formed rises out of the canvas to confront the viewer. Pollock did not limit himself to traditional materials in his paintings. Thus he moved beyond pain towards what might be termed as a heavy impasto by mixing together a concoction of materials such as "sand, broken glass or other foreign matter" (beatman, 2006). He also introduced what became known as the "all-over" style of painting which tries to break away fro the idea of having traditional points of emphasis or identifiable parts within the canvas. In a sense this "abandons the traditional idea of composition in terms of relations among parts" (beatman, 2006). Perhaps most interesting of all, the design of the painting often had little relation to the canvas itself: Pollock would often trim the canvas to suit the image. Normally painters will paint an image using the canvas they have chosen, but to Pollock the canvas was quite literally a tool that could be used in any way he wanted to express his imagination. When he died in a car crash at a tragically premature age, Jackson Pollock left an ambiguous legacy. He had been extraordinarily successful and influential, but as de Kooning put it in 1947, "he broke the ice" (beatman, 2006) within the artistic world. At first glance this appears to be a complimentary comment, but on further examination it may be seen that de Kooning was in fact suggesting that Pollock broke the thin ice that was keeping art from descending into pure abstraction, and that he thrust a whole generation of painters into a meaningless form. The reaction against Pollock that occurred after his death may be just an example of the endless pendulum swings in fashion that occur in painting, or it may reflect the fact that his was a unique talent that produced a perhaps unique form of art that cannot be adequately followed by others. As with much else within painting, this interpretation is in the eye of the beholder. However, his influence, both on other artists and upon the world in general, can scarcely be exaggerated. _____________________________________ Works Cited Toynton, Evelyn. "Review of Jackson Pollock." The New York Times Book Review, July, 2002. Varnedoe, Kirk. Jackson Pollock. Museum of Modern Art, New York: 2002. www.beatmusem.org/pollock/jacksonpollock.html Read More