3RD PAINTING WORKSHOP ON THE HISTORICAL AVANT-GARDE

Transcription

1 3RD PAINTING WORKSHOP ON THE HISTORICAL AVANT-GARDE JACKSON POLLOCK ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM / ACTION PAINTING SUNDAY 8TH FEBRUARY at The Barn, Aldgate $60

2 JACKSON POLLOCK American Abstract Expressionist (44yrs) Born on January 28, 1912, in Cody, Wyoming, artist Jackson Pollock studied under Thomas Hart Benton before leaving traditional techniques to explore abstraction expressionism via his splatter and action pieces, which involved pouring paint and other media directly onto canvases. Pollock was both renowned and critiqued for his conventions. Many claim that it was Jackson Pollock who created a path for this art form, and the artists who followed him. By breaking the mould in 1947, with his 'drip and splash' style, he showed the art world, and critics, what could possibly come in the future, and the new styles that were possible, with an open mind to the creative process. Jackson Pollock, An Abstract Expressionist / Action Painter The movement gained recognition largely due to the fame of Jackson Pollock and a Time Magazine article claiming him to be greatest living artist in America. Pollock's purely abstract work polarised the public and the art critics and provoked discussions of "What is art?" and "Is that art? Number 1, Lavender Mist, 1948

3 The term "Abstract Expressionism" was also difficult to understand. Harold Rosenburg preferred the phrase "Action Painting" and art critic Clement Greenberg preferred "American Type Painting". Because of the concentration of Abstract Expressionism artists in New York it was also known as the New York School. Abstract Expressionism was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and also put New York City at the centre of the art world, a role formerly filled by Paris. Some artists saw themselves as disillusioned commentators on contemporary society after the Great Depression and the Second World War. As a movement the Abstract Expressionists were seen as rebels and sometimes even troublemakers. Jackson Pollock was all about the doing or the actual physical act of painting. His was a performance an action and event, an unconscious choreography, and even though he left something behind for us to ponder, compared to the act the art work is a mere fossil, albeit a beautifully intriguing one. Pollock said of his style of painting that It is energy and motion made visible - memories arrested in space. Much like the Surrealists before him Pollock was consciously painting from his unconscious. He was not a figurative painter, although he was perfectly able to do so. Pollock excited and upset people at the time, and still does. He was a revolutionary who changed the way we accept art.

4 To me his paintings are a kind of psychological mapping. Pollock would allow his painting to build intricate layers which resulted in (upon contemplating his works) an infinite physical depth. He was in control, (a functioning alcoholic), he knew what he was doing. Like a great dancer or jazz musician who knows their craft so well he lets go and allows new pathways to be found. The link below will take you to a Video on Blue Poles <iframe width="560" height="315" src=" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe Process Through his drip action technique, Pollock would create layers upon layers of paint, created in a chaotic assemblage of drips and splashes. Physicists have studied Pollock s canvases, such as Lavender Mist, for fractals, which naturally occur out of chaos. Chaos is defined as an irregularity of motion or shape that naturally arises from deterministic forces (such as painting). Some art scientists, such as Richard Taylor, have determined that the more chaotic Pollock s drippings became, the closer they resembled naturally occurring fractals, and that his chronologically later paintings displayed these characteristics more so than his earlier works, which were less chaotic. Pollock titled his works numerically, so as to avoid any outside associations, these "drip" paintings comprise calligraphic, looping cords of colour that animate and energise every inch of their compositions. 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. Jackson Pollock Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn t have any beginning or any end. He didn t mean it as a compliment, but it was. Jackson Pollock

5 "I feel nearer, more a part of the painting since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting." Pollock Things to consider; And what would abstract art be without theory, without the thought? It would be wallpaper. Pallet / base colour, Pallet - tone of painting, Tools, Line, Space, Chaos, Balance, Harmony, Improvisation, Rhythm, Automation / painting from the unconscious References: Prepared by Liana Vargas (BVA) 2015