Getting to Know Jackson Pollock Understanding Jackson Pollock as a person can help one understand him as artist, in turn helps one to understand and analyze his paintings. A comparison of Autumn Rhythm and Portrait and a Dream will reveal how Jackson Pollock expressed himself louder than other artists through his form of abstraction. Each of these paintings will also reveal a lot about his connection to himself and his demons and his struggle with verbal expression. An analysis of them will also explain his approach to both different yet methodical. They will reveal the time and dedication in each as well as how he could express himself without saying a word. Pollock is known worldwide for his drip, or what others call his splatter paintings. However, he had made a name for himself in the world of abstraction several years before he created his splatter paintings. Pollock studied at the Art Students League in New York where he created abstract landscape works such as Going West and The Covered Wagon. Pollock also studied and made paintings that had strong resemblance to the style of Pablo Picasso such as Man with a Knife and Woman. Pollock was also influenced by his friends Clement Greenbery and Williem de Kooning. However, the time spent with his teacher Thomas Hart Jung and undergo therapy. Jung specialized in a treatment known as Jungian Therapy. In the beginning, Pollock had a lot of trouble verbally expressing himself to Dr. Jung so rather than verbally doing so Dr. Jung encouraged him to paint his emotions. During these treatments, Pollock became very aware of his subconscious, which also made him very aware of psychic automatism which moved him to understand and study the dreamscape style form of painting known as surrealism. Helen Gardner and Fred S. Kleiner, Gardner's art through the ages: a global history (Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2013),
During Vincent Van Gogh’s childhood years, and even before he was born, impressionism was the most common form of art. Impressionism was a very limiting type of art, with certain colors and scenes one must paint with. A few artists had grown tired of impressionism, however, and wanted to create their own genre of art. These artists, including Paul Gaugin, Vincent Van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Paul Cezanne, hoped to better express themselves by painting ...
Jackson Pollock." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2nd ed. Vol. 12. Detroit: Gale, 2004. 379-380. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
He got a lot of his inspiration from his mother. She loved painting with water colors and making
Jackson Pollock was an American abstract artist born in Cody, Wyoming in 1912. He was the youngest of his five brothers. Even though he was born on a farm, he never milked a cow and he was terrified of horses because he grew up in California. He dropped out of high school at the age of seventeen and proceeded to move to New York City with his older brother, Charles, and studied with Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League. Thomas Benton was already a great artist at the time in which Pollock studied with him. Benton acted like the father figure in Pollock’s life to replace the original that wasn’t there. Benton was known for his large murals that appear on ceilings or walls. “Jack was a rebellious sort at all times,” recalls his classmate and friend, artist Harold Lehman. He grew his hair long and helped pen a manifesto denouncing athletics, even though “he had a muscular build and the school wanted to put him on the football team,” says former teacher Doug Lemon. Pollock always was upset with himself in his studies because he had troubles drawing things like they were supposed to look. From 1938 to 1942, Jackson joined a Mexican workshop of people with a painter named David Siqueiros. This workshop painted the murals for the WPA Federal Art Projects. This new group of people started experimenting with new types of paint and new ways of applying it to large canvas. People say that this time period was when Jackson was stimulated with ideas from looking at the Mexican or WPA murals. Looking at paintings from Picasso and the surrealists also inspired Jackson at this time. The type of paint they used was mixing oil colors with paint used for painting cars. Jackson noticed that the shapes and colors they created were just as beautiful as anything else was. Jackson realized that you didn’t have to be able to draw perfect to make beautiful paintings. Jackson started developing a whole new way of painting that he had never tried before and his paintings were starting to look totally different from before.
Though most works of art have some underlying, deeper meaning attached to them, our first impression of their significance comes through our initial visual interpretation. When we first view a painting or a statue or other piece of art, we notice first the visual details – its size, its medium, its color, and its condition, for example – before we begin to ponder its greater significance. Indeed, these visual clues are just as important as any other interpretation or meaning of a work, for they allow us to understand just what that deeper meaning is. The expression on a statue’s face tells us the emotion and message that the artist is trying to convey. Its color, too, can provide clues: darker or lighter colors can play a role in how we judge a piece of art. The type of lines used in a piece can send different messages. A sculpture, for example, may have been carved with hard, rough lines or it may have been carved with smoother, more flowing lines that portray a kind of gentleness.
The article Artists Mythologies and Media Genius, Madness and Art History (1980) by Griselda Pollock is a forty page essay where Pollock (1980), argues and explains her views on the crucial question, "how art history works" (Pollock, 1980, p.57). She emphasizes that there should be changes to the practice of art history and uses Van Gogh as a major example in her study. Her thesis is to prove that the meaning behind artworks should not be restricted only to the artist who creates it, but also to realize what kind of economical, financial, social situation the artist may have been in to influence the subject that is used. (Pollock, 1980, pg. 57) She explains her views through this thesis and further develops this idea by engaging in scholarly debates with art historians and researcher, and objecting to how they claim there is a general state of how art is read. She structures her paragraphs in ways that allows her to present different kinds of evidences from a variety sources while using a formal yet persuasive tone of voice to get her point across to the reader.
He attended Yale University in the early 1920's, but never completed his formal education there. In 1925 he entered studies at the Art Students League in New York City where he started painting under the instruction of Max Weber. Although he studied under Max Weber, he still considered himself as basically a self-taught painter. In the 1930's and 1940's he went through phases influenced by Expressionism and Surrealism, but from about 1947 he began to develop his own distinctive style for which he is known for today. Critics labeled Mark Rothko as an Abstract Expressionist, but defiantly he argued this association by his peers, because he did not want to be known for a certain style.
Pioch, N. (2002, Jul 16). WebMuseum: Pollock, Jackson. Retrieved 3 30, 2014, from Pollock, Jackson: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/
During his journey as a young artist before finding his home in the realm of surrealism, Dali had experiences with other styles of painting such as realism, impressionism and cubism. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Realism is “The representation in art or literature of objects, actions, or social conditions as they actually are, without idealization or presentation in abstract form.” Dali exemplifies this in his painting Basket of Bread (1926). Another style used in his earlier times was impressionism; “A theory or style of painting originating and developed in France during the 1870s, characterized by concentration on the immediate visual impression produced by a scene and by the use of unmixed primary colors and small strokes to simulate actual reflected light” (American Heritage Dictionary), this style is used in the View of Cadaques” (1904). In the “Honey is Sweeter than Blood” we see Dali exemplify cubism, which is “a nonobjective school of painting and sculpture developed in Paris in the early 20th century, characterized by the reduction and fragmentation of natural forms into abstract, often geometric structures usually rendered as a set of discrete planes” (American Heritage Dictionary).
Imagine you can own one of the famous painting in the world. Which one would it be? What will you do with it? If I got to own a famous painting, I would hang it in my bedroom and I’ll show it to my family. In this situation, If needed to narrow it down it will be The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali or Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. These paintings are extremely different, and their artistic movement is opposite from one another. By the end of this essay, you’re going to know the differences and similarities of these paintings.
Abstract art in comparison to realism, can be described as two art forms on opposite ends of the art style spectrum. Picasso and Pollock both had a massive impact on the outcome of modern art through their ability to challenge viewers as they interpret art, not for what the painting shows, but instead what the idea of it came from. Picasso’s painting is now an iconic symbol for an anti-war message, and Pollock’s painting now represent a form of freedom of speech and expression throughout America. Ultimately the reason artists moved from realism to abstract came from the invention of the camera, giving artist a reason to branch to new and edgy art forms, which will later create the modern art
Art is a very important part of humanity’s history, and it can be found anywhere from the walls of caves to the halls of museums. The artists that created these works of art were influenced by a multitude of factors including personal issues, politics, and other art movements. Frida Kahlo and Vincent van Gogh, two wildly popular artists, have left behind artwork, that to this day, influences and fascinates people around the world. Their painting styles and personal lives are vastly different, but both artists managed to capture the emotions that they were feeling and used them to create artwork.
Jackson Pollack and Vincent van Gogh are some of most famous artist before and after their time. Each artist has a similar and different painting methods that they use when painting pictures. There most well-known paintings are called “Number 1” and “The Starry Night”. The paintings give off emotion by how they look, but each one is painted in different ways. The public did not find their paintings wanting when they were made. The difference was how long it took for them to get recognized for their work. Lastly, the paintings gave different and similar reactions to people that have changed over the years of their existence.
I have chosen to critique the art masterpiece, Autumn Rhythm. Autumn Rhythm is oil on canvas, 8' 9" x 17' 3." It is my opinion, before you can critique Autumn Rhythm; you must try to understand the artist and his/her background. Artist Jackson Pollock was from a working class family who lived and worked in Wyoming, Arizona, and southern California. He studied at two different art schools; Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles and the Art Student's League in New York, he also studied with several other great artists during his time. However the artist experienced some dark days in his life. The artist fought the demon of alcoholism, and came face to face with his addiction. Stepping forward into the unknown, Pollock allowed his parents to place him in Jungian therapy. "Jungian therapy is centered on its helpful, hopeful and unique ways of experiencing the human mind. With due consideration of religion and the spirit of individuals, it also embraces the collective history of humanity. With its emphasis on individuation, wholeness and centering, there is a focus on the healthy elements of the human mind and soul and a search for balance. Pollock did not want to converse with his therapist about his problems and addictions, so his therapist suggested that he paint a piece of art that expressed his unspoken thoughts and feelings, (psychology of Carl G. Jung)." When the therapist would ask questions, Jackson would not reply, so the therapist devised a plan to help Jackson to get his feeling out in the open. He would have Jackson to create with paints on canvas how he was feeling on the inside then the Jungian therapist would analyze the artwork that Pollock brought to h...
There are endless styles and themes in which artists can decide to paint in. Surrealism is a well known art movement that started in the 1900s. Surrealism was created to “change life” said Rimbaud or to “transform the world” said Marx and essentially that’s what it did. By eliminating logic, new boundaries were opened and a new focus was demonstrated by some artists. Surrealism was first seen in writing so this movement didn’t necessarily begin in the art field. But, it did help artists enhance their paintings with dream-like features and this was a form of expression. Along the way, the artists used this to create a spiritual orientation in their artwork. According to Cathrin Klingsöhr-Leroy, the definition of surrealism is “a pure psychic automatism by which it is intended to express, either verbally or in writing, or otherwise, the true function of thought. Thought dictated in the absence of all control exerted by reason, and outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupations.” Artists, at this point, were taking the concept of dreams and fantasy and experimenting with it. They applied it to their artwork creating surrealism.