Jackson Pollock is an American painter who was originally from Wyoming. He is one the most recognized painters of the Abstract Expressionist movement. This post World War II movement was the first American art movement to gain worldwide recognition. Jackson Pollock is best known for his drip paintings. He created them by putting a large canvas on the ground and standing over or walking around it, pouring paint directly from the can or using a stick to drip lines on the surface.

I chose this image by Jackson Pollock called Autumn Rhythm (Number 30). It was created in 1950 and is enamel on canvas. I chose it because I wanted to explore a piece of art that might be dismissed as valid art. Originally I thought his work was cool to look at, but I didn’t spend much time thinking about it. I didn’t realize how much effort actually went into creating it. After doing some research, however, I became much more interested in both the process and the intent of Pollock’s work. I viewed a lot of his paintings, but I was drawn to this piece the most. One of the things I learned from my research was that Pollock listened to jazz for days on end while he created his work. I feel like I can see the music especially in this painting. There is a lot of motion in the music that came through in the art. Reading an interview with Pollock made everything fall into place for me; I felt I understood his intent as an artist.

“I enjoy working on a large canvas. I feel more at home, more at ease in a big area. Having a canvas on the floor, I feel nearer, more a part of a painting. This way I can walk around it, work from all four sides and be in the painting, similar to the Indian sand painters of the West. Sometimes I use a brush, but often prefer using a stick. Sometimes I pour the paint straight out of the can. I like to use a dripping, fluid paint. I also use sand, broken glass, pebbles, string, nails or other foreign matter. The method of painting is a natural growth out of a need. I want to express my feelings rather than illustrate them. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement. When I am painting I have a general notion as to what I am about. I can control the flow of the paint; there is no accident, just as there is no beginning and no end. Sometimes I lose a painting. But I have no fear of changes, of destroying the image, because a painting has a life of its own. I kind of let it live.” Jackson Pollock

In another interview, Pollock talks about how he gets into frenzy when he’s painting and he’s unaware of what’s happening around him. He doesn’t realize what he’s done until he’s finished. This is interesting to me because it shows that he’s not trying to create a particular image or a likeness to anything. He puts down exactly what he feels on the canvas. His paintings are the result of raw emotion. His art doesn’t represent anything except himself. Because of this, I view this piece as Emotionalist because he said he is trying to create an emotion with his artwork. I would also consider it to be Mimetic because the lines in the painting are mimicking the jazz music Pollock listened to.

My questions for the class is, even though Pollock’s art was just paint spattered on canvas, should it still be valued as art?

References:

"Jackson Pollock: Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) (57.92)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/11/na/ho_57.92.htm (June 2007)

"Jackson Pollock." 2009. Biography.com. 7 Dec 2009, 05:06 http://www.biography.com/articles/Jackson-Pollock-9443818.