1912-1956 In the vertical art storage rack, you will find the following: 2 Large Reproductions: Silver Over Black, White, Yellow, and Red, 1948; Composition, 1946 Posters: Art Elements & Principles posters to use in the discussion On the NSS PTA website, you will find digital images available for download as a.zip file. These can be sent to the teacher to project on their Smartboards. In the black cabinet, you will find a white binder with a copy of this presentation. Updated January 2018
Artist Background Jackson Pollock was an American painter well known for his intensely colorful drip paintings. His work played a key role in the development of abstract expressionism in the US in the late 40s and early 50s. He was born in Cody, Wyoming, and spent his boyhood in Arizona and California. He was raised mainly by his older brothers and at the age of 17 he followed his brother Charles, also a painter, to New York City. There he studied at the Art Students League under Thomas Hart Benton. In 1938 he began four years of work in the Federal Arts Project, part of the New Deal program during the Great Depression. Pollock s first one-man show was at the Art of This Century Gallery in 1944. After a period of experimentation, he began to use his famous drip technique. These paintings were controversial but also very successful. His color drip paintings, or colorscapes, are noted for their vibrant colors and the interaction of line, surface and color. Pollock s method was to spread a large piece of raw canvas on the floor and drip various colors of paint on it from either paint cans, a loaded brush, or various other materials. With this technique he became known as an action painter. He required absolute silence while painting. From 1950 through 1952, Pollock did a series of black and white dripped figure paintings which have been described as reminiscent of Chinese ink drawings in their seemingly accidental brilliance. His last paintings date from 1955. After many months without painting and a struggle with alcoholism, he died in an automobile accident near East Hampton, New York, in August 1956. His career had lasted just over ten years. Pollock s work represents a high point in the early 20th century movement toward abstraction in art. He said, When I am painting, I m not aware of what I m doing because the painting has a life of its own. What is Abstract Expressionism? Abstract art is that which is not a representation of something concrete in life. This school of art places emphasis on the expressive qualities of paint (and other materials) in their application to canvas. The term was first used to describe the non-representational paintings of Kandinsky in 1929. It is now used to describe the work of a group of abstract painters who were active mainly in New York City from the middle 1940s to the early 1960s. Prior to this time, the United States seemed artistically provincial and isolated. A number of European painters, including Joan Miro, came to New York during World War II, and collectively they further influenced the movement towards abstract art.
Jackson Pollock was a leader of this abstract expressionist movement. His work exemplified risk-taking and openness, and it received international attention. The following comments by contemporary artist Harry Hilson further describe the importance of Pollock s work to this movement and to American art as a whole: Pollock must have been referring to some world beyond our three dimensional every day visual world Pollock s painting moves out of the arena of our common everyday ho-hum world into the much broader vista of universal thought. Opening our minds to new worlds beyond our normal comprehension. And that s what a good painting should do. Excite your mind, even to the point of pushing you off into your own world of original thought. A Look at a Drip Painting Here s what to look for in the famous drip paintings: 1. There is no compositional center or focal point. 2. The different colors of paint are not applied one after the other, but weave in and out; occasionally the colors mix together and seem to melt into one another. 3. The paint is laid on in certain rhythmical patterns. 4. The painting overall as energy and exuberance. 5. They re really kind of pretty. Ask: Look at this photograph. What do you think about how Pollock paints? Discuss the large canvas (Where does he put it?) Interesting Fact: Jackson Pollock would listen to music while he would paint.
Ask: Do you think the music inspired his paintings? Do you listen to music when you draw or paint? Featured Art Silver Over Black, White, Yellow, and Red, 1948 Pollock s influential paintings such as this huge canvas (6 feet x 8 feet) are forerunners of the large scale and overall compositions of the art of the 1950s and 1960s. In Pollock s painting, long traceries of line continuously intertwine without beginning or end, not allowing the eye to stop or focus and implying an extension beyond the canvas. In addition, space can be read as either infinitely deep or exceedingly narrow, pressing against the picture plane. As dizzying and freewheeling as the line and composition appear, Pollock s spontaneous, intuitive technique is backed by the artist s experienced technical control and his works display a consistent style and strength. Composition, 1946 In the mid 1940 s, Jackson Pollock created a turbulent yet elegant abstract painting named Composition. This artist brought abstract expressionism to a new level with his forceful and boldly dramatic style. Pollock was established as a highly influential artist at that time and until this day. Pollock developed a new technique that he used in his creations: drip painting. This technique was used in his painting Composition. It consisted of letting color drip or run in long strings of pigment from a suspended brush above the huge canvas, allowing drips and spatters. In his canvas, Pollock used blue, red, and black splashes to occupy it, as well as broad brushstrokes of black and red on the right side of the painting. The lines and forms are chaotic and unorderly. The orientation of the picture remained uncertain until after it had been completed. He claimed that by putting large, unstretched canvases on the floor of his studio rather than on the easel, he could walk around the
image, working on it from all four sides to get into his paintings even more. For this method he claimed descent from the Indian sand painters of the west, spontaneous drawing from the unconscious was to be the result. Elements of Art Begin with using the Elements of Art posters for discussion. COLOR: Which colors do you see in the painting you are looking at? Are there dominant colors? Do the colors suggest any ideas or feelings to you? How do you think Pollock chose his colors? Did he plan it or was it random? SHAPE: What shapes can you see in the painting (if any)? Do you think it is easy or hard to create shapes painting like this? Could you do it? How? TEXTURE: LINE: If we were looking at the original painting, would there be a texture if you touched the canvas? Describe it. Are there strong lines depicted in the pieces? Are they thick or thin? Both? LIGHT: Is there a sense of light and shadow? SPACE: Do you think the artist was trying to use up all the space on the canvas on purpose or do you think that happened because of the style of painting he used? Discussion Questions/Activities: You can choose one or both of these paintings to discuss in depth Make a list of words to describe either of these painting. What title would you give this painting? Do you think there is one point of focus in this painting or many? Rotate the painting and set it on its side or turn it upside down. What do you notice? Do you like this painting? Do you think it is more difficult to paint something like this or paintings that illustrate realistic things? Why do you say that?
Why do you think that Jackson Pollock chose to create a painting in this drip manner? Why not paint in a more traditional style? Online Sources: https://www.jackson-pollock.org/silver-over-black-white-yellow-and-red.jsp http://www.aaronartprints.org/pollock-composition.php http://www.theartstory.org/artist-pollock-jackson.htm