Jackson Pollock

533 Words2 Pages

Another artist who focused less on the depiction of actual forms and more on the movement within the canvas was Jackson Pollock, who’s work, No. 2, shares aspects with both the two previously mentioned artists. His experimental drip painting technique encompasses both the linear aspects of Stella’s artwork as well as the organic shapes of Rothko’s. Yet, in contrast there is much more unpredictability expressed in his canvas and no recognizable forms, instead the technique and composition focus on the expression of emptions. The lines are not based in architectural structures like Stella’s work but instead are organic and curvaceous. This is also the case with his organic splatters, they are much more energetic and animated than Rothko’s loosely defined shapes. …show more content…

Rosenberg explains that a key part of action painting is that “the gesture on the canvas was a gesture of liberation, from value- political, aesthetic, or moral” yet this also liberates the artist from having to make forms at all (583). The process of generating drip paintings also resists the creation of recognizable forms as there is an element of chance of where and how the paint will fall, reducing the artist’s agency to plan what forms he wants to create. The jumble of lines and drips creates a crowded composition that fills the entirety of the canvas and extends off the ends into blank space, the rectangular shape of the canvas containing only the part Pollock wants us to see. In this way, No. 2 differs from some of Pollock’s others work where contrasting lines of color frame the image and keep it contained from spilling off the canvas, for example in Autumn Rhythm. The movement in this work doesn’t just come from the motion it produces in the viewer’s eyes but also in the

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