Abstraction and Pollock

Artists capture the world around us and how it affects our emotions and experiences. Some art is realistic what you see is what you get, but in the early 20th century art shifted into an interpretive form. This form is abstraction the process by which objects, feelings, and concepts are presented in a uniquely singular way. Artist used a variety of mediums and colors to portray feelings and capture the undetermined shape of thoughts and ideas. With a brief explanation of what abstraction means to the world of art we can see how an iconic artist like Jackson Pollock left his mark on the movement.

When walking into the galleries of any art museums across the world there is always a reserved space for the peculiar art of abstraction. While traversing such galleries the eye is drawn to disfigured shapes, single color canvases, haphazardly painted lines, or random objects placed together. All of these are considered abstract art with each fitting into sub-categories created by the abstract movement in the 20th century. Abstract art has progressively evolved into what is seen on gallery walls today, from demonstrating the real world in morphed images like that of Georges Seurat in his painting “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” to the iconic Jackson Pollock spatter paintings. “Much can be contained in abstraction. It’s just not one thing. It can be a mirror or window and it cand shift depending on who is looking at it and where and when” (PBS, 2016). As the 20th century progressed abstraction became more about what the view could interpret out of the painting than its actual content.

Pollocks abstract splatter paintings brought the new form of abstraction to a mainstream audience in the 1960’s. Pollock’s style was influenced by many great artists of his time like David Alfaro Siqueiros who believed that “revolutionary art required new materials like automobile lacquer and paint thinner and innovative techniques like airbrushing, stenciling, flinging paint, and controlled accidents” (PBS, 2018). Pollock took this concept to heart when creating his icon pieces by using a variety of materials and allowing the paint to drip onto the floor-bound canvas. The contribution to abstraction that Pollock had on the movement inspired younger artist to try new forms of expressing art. No more was there a stagnant picture in a frame, but a free flowing and interpretive. Kirk Varnedoe in his book Pictures of Nothing states this one Pollock, “even before they saw Pollock’s paintings, they had seen Hans Namuth’s photographs of Pollock at work. These photographs inspired for them a very different idea of what the next logical step in modern art might be” (Citation). Though many artists were producing similar paintings to his what made all the difference is seeing the artist at work. The pictures Namuth took brought the artist to the forefront and connected viewers not only with the painting, but with the hands being it.

Abstraction has had many influential artists contributing to its form and creating new paintings that cause the public to interpret in many different manners. From haphazardly painted lines to solid color painted canvases abstract art has change how we look interpret the world around us. One of the artists that influence the movement and brought it to the mainstream consciousness was Jackson Pollock who transform the creation of art into a medium all it owns.

Reference:

PBS. (2016, December 22). The Case for Abstraction [Video]. PBS.Org. https://www.pbs.org/video/art-assignment-abstraction/

PBS. (2018, February 15). The Case for Jackson Pollock [Video]. PBS.Org. https://www.pbs.org/video/the-case-for-jackson-pollock-7gsm6n/

Varnedoe, K. (2003). Survivals and Fresh Starts. In Pictures of Nothing (pp. 47–87). Princeton University Pres. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/522d0844e4b09d456b0a2ea6/t/5294f3c4e4b0ba7a9259287c/1385493444050/PICTURES+OF+NOTHING_.pdf