Behind the Art
What is art? By definition it is, “An occupation requiring knowledge or skill” (Merriam). Many people would argue that late artist Jackson Pollock’s work would not go under this category. But Pollock’s paintings were not random splats and splashes, but carefully planned and expertly executed works of art.
In order to understand Pollock’s work, it’s important that you know a little about him. Jackson Pollock was born in Wyoming in 1912. His family moved around the southwest before settling in Los Angeles. At age 18 he dropped out of high school and moved to New York, where he struggled for more than a decade to make it as an artist.
Pollock was a very complex and emotionally distraught man. By this time in his life, Pollock had already become a full-blown alcoholic. His brother Sanford, who taught as an apprentice at the school where Pollock was studying, wrote to a family friend,
Jackson has been having a very difficult time with himself. This past year has been a succession of periods of emotional instability for him, which is usually expressed by a complete loss of responsibility both to himself and to us. Accompanied, of course, with drinking. It came to the point where it was obvious that the man needed help. He was mentally sick. So I took him to a well-recommended doctor, a psychiatrist, who has been trying to help the man find himself. As you know troubles such as his are very deep-rooted, in childhood usually, and it takes a long while to get them ironed out. He has been going some six months now and I feel there is a slight improvement in his point of view (Landau 17).
Pollock branched out to explore the expression of himself thr...
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...y of his own mind and the ideas that he believed in. Although Pollock was a psychologically complex man, he was a genius of his time, showing us not only a new way to paint but also a new way to think. “Jack the Dripper” is one to be remembered and missed.
Works Cited
“About Jackson Pollock.” 1 May 2003. <http://www.jacksonpollock.com/index.html>
Landau, Ellen G. Jackson Pollock. NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1989.
Lehrer, Jim. “Jack the Dripper.” January 11, 1999. 1 May 2003. <http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june99/pollock_1-11.html>
Merriam Webster Dictionary. 1 May 2003.
<http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary>
Moore, Barbara. “Jackson Pollock.” 2003. 1 May 2003. <http://www.nga.gov/feature/pollock/
Varnedoe, Kirk, and Pepe Karmel. Jackson Pollock. NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1999.
January 28, 1912, Paul Jackson Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming. He was the youngest of five boys, and began taking an interest in art after his oldest brother, Charles Pollock. He later enrolled at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles, first doing sculptures, and then later doing paintings. After getting kicked out for starting fights, he moved to New York and shadowed Thomas Hart Benton, attending the Art Students League. Benton’s family took Jackson under their wing. But after his father died suddenly, Pollock became depressed. This lead to excessive drinking and the threatening of Charles’ wife with an ax that he threw at one of Charles’ paintings scheduled for an upcoming exhibition. He was then kicked out, and the Great Depression started to take place.
If I were to ask you what is art, and how can one find it? What would you say? Well if it were me being asked those question, I would simply say that art to me is a form of a picture; a visual painting or model of some design and it could be found all among us. You may define it differently only because art could be defined in many ways. I could simply say that art to me is a form of a picture; a visual painting or model of some design. Well according to an article written by Shelley Esaak, an art history expert she mentioned that art has a way of stimulating different parts of our brains to make us laugh or incite us to riot, with a whole gamut of emotions in between. She also mentioned that art gives us a way to be creative and express ourselves. [1]
In our current society, us as humans are very consumed in our telephone devices, technology,
Mildred was an odd woman who was literally “brainwashed” by society. Mildred had no idea what she would do or why she would do it. She once took so many sleeping pills that she almost died, but in the morning denied everything that happened. She was a pill popping, suicidal snob who was obsessed with material things. Mildred preferred the company of her “parlor-walls” and seashell radios than the company of Montag. The TV walls were called “parlor-walls” and Mildred referred to the people on TV as her “parlor-family.” She was with them most of the time and had nothing else to do all day. The society in which they live in used mind-controlling devices to command all the citizens and Mildred was one of them. This had an immense impact on Montag and Mildred’s relationship.
Arguably, one of Ray Bradbury’s first works, Fahrenheit 451, portrays to the reader the negative effects of technology on society. Bradbury believed that academic prosperity was the key to success. He was born in Illinois were. Getting an Education for Ray Bradbury was difficult after high school: “After high school Ray didn’t have any money for college so he went to his local library instead. He went to the library three days a week for ten years” (Ray, Biography). Bradbury personified society’s ignorance in the world into the character Mildred. He used Clarisse McClellan as a symbol of society’s free spirits, through her actions and her crazy personality and he used Guy Montag as man’s free will.
This realistic and demanding movie gives a very detailed and emotional look into the painter Jackson Pollock’s life. Director, and main character, Ed Harris released “Pollock” in September 2000. This was Harris’s personal project after reading a biography on Jackson Pollock. Harris does an excellent job at recreating the artwork of Pollock and really showing what it is like to be an alcoholic dealing with the demons of your work and home life.
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.
Plus him some what justifying street art doesn't help him out. His father was an abusive alcoholic, and even that didn’t stop Pollock from falling under the influence of alcoholism himself. Though he did end up paying for it on August 11, 1956 when Pollock died at the age of 44 from drunk driving. (biography.com) And I see why a school drop out isn’t someone that is exactly ideal to represent the making of America, but he has done so much more than those mistakes and should be remembered for the good he did in his life.
Art is defined by Oxford’s Dictionary as works produced by human creative skill and imagination. The argument of whether or not graffiti is art has been around for an indeterminable amount of time. Because of many different and valid reasons, graffiti should be considered as art.
Pollock's family moved around the West, to Arizona and throughout California. When Pollock was 8, his father, who was an abusive alcoholic, left the family, and Pollock's older brother, Charles, became like a father to him. Charles was an artist, and was considered to be the best in the family. He had a significant influence on his younger brother's future ambitions. While the family was living in Los Angeles, Pollock enrolled in the Manual Arts High School, where he learned to draw but had little success expressing himself. He was eventually expelled for starting fights.
It all began when “three strange figures” who later turned out to be three witches “told [Macbeth] he would become king (Nuttall 1). Macbeth at this time was a loyal kinsman to Duncan, the current king. While it was a thought in the back of his mind that Macbeth would eventually like to take the throne, it never occurred to him that he would have the murder Duncan in order to do so. The witches added turmoil to this idea by talking about Banquo as well and stating that Banquo’s sons will become king as well. This prophecy made it inevitable that murder would eventually take place. Although hesitant at first, Macbeth, with the persistent help of Lady Macbeth, followed through with the murder and took the throne as King. Had the witches not told Macbeth his prophecy, Macbeth would more than likely not have resorted to the tactics and actions it took for him to in due course become king. At this point in the story, Macbeth is not a cold-blooded murderer who he is destined to become later. Duncan’s murder was Macbeth’s first time to kill another man; however, this wouldn’t be his last as a cover-up would be needed. “[Macbeth] require[ed] a clearness” so t...
Jackson Pollock, one of the 20th Century most famous artists was born on January 28th, 1912 in Cody, Wyoming and was the youngest of five brothers. Pollock’s father, LeRoy Pollock was a farmer and a land Surveyor for the government and his mother, Stella McClure was an art fanatic. The Pollock family moved around and lived in places like Arizona and California due to LeRoy’s surveying. Jackson’s father was an abusive alcoholic and left the family when Jackson was only 8; which led to Jackson’s oldest brother, Charles, to become the “man of the house”. Charles had a huge impact on Jackson’s future, because he too was an artist and Jackson always looked up to him.
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