Jackson Pollock

Entering into a discussion of Jackson Pollock is a difficult and large step to take, given the quantity of criticism surrounding his work. The contradictory nature of his work and his turbulent life makes attempts to understand his importance difficult. Art historians struggle to find the adjectives that will adequately project what Pollock accomplished at the height of his production, but it is the difficulty in separating the artist from the art that has often led to a idealistic view of Pollock as a tragic hero. His life was a constant struggle with his own existence and a search to find effective work in an intense and confusing world. Through the uncertainty yet force of his paintings, Pollock was able to embody motivation and determination

Clark wrote in his book “Farewell to an Idea” identified with Pollock’s work, saying: Pollock's “all over” style and employment of automatism focuses on the medium while at the same time enabling existential action, thereby aligning his work with both the formalism of Greenberg and the existentialism of Rosenberg and leftist politics. The painting becomes an absolution of the medium that is able to make sense out of confusion, but it is also the anxious, exploratory nature of the work that lends itself to the modernist classification. I am suggesting that the early drip paintings contain something that adds to the “authenticity,” which the later works often lack. I think it is the satisfaction of the later works, their lack of experimentation and uncertainty that dull their edge. The process is so transparent that each of Pollock's marks announces his movement; he is struggling through the unknown. There is an active engagement with the exploration of the new drip technique that keeps the energy of the work while restricting the work from becoming a cohesive, easily considered truth. Pollock had to insert himself into the work announcing himself as the author of the illegible

The drip technique has been widely debated for its art historical origins, but it is also the source of debate as to the spontaneity of Pollock's work. To whatever extent Pollock harnessed his use of automatism; he certainly gained experience and knowledge of the physical limitations of paint through experimenting with the technique. A close relationship between the artist and the medium is obviously to be gained through practice, but what is more important than issuing Pollock's ability with paint is asserting the act of painting. Pollock would not have been able to complete most of the drip paintings in one determined effort, but used intuition and a close involvement with the work to engage existentially with the process of painting. Pollock's handprints become marks of productive vitality and ambition. The chaotic totality becomes the product of many intuitive acts. With each mark came a new decision. The process of finding and corrupting the balance of the work kept the painting in flux, alive, and changeable. Pollock's decisions in each new situation are inherent to his own subjectivity; his own perspective of the canvas, and the changes he would enact would thereby construct a realm consisting only of