During his lifetime, Jackson Pollock had only had one successful art exhibition. He took place at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York in November 1949, and thereafter, his abstract expressionist colleague Willem from Kooning said “Jackson has finally broken the ice”. Perhaps, according to Louis Menand's book The free world: art and thought in the Cold WarHe meant that “Pollock was the first American abstraction to enter the world of traditional art, where he could have indicated that Pollock had broken through a stylistic logjam that American painters felt blocked.” Whatever his intention, Kooning's art remark is annoyed and Pollock's great lawyer Clement GreenbergWho “thought it reduced the Pollock to a transitional figure”.
It was not necessarily a reduction: as Menand sees, “all the figures are transitory. However, each figure is not a hinge, someone who represents a moment when a mode of practice swings to another. ” Pollock was such a hinge because, in his own way, was Greenberg: “After Pollock, people painted differently. After Greenberg, people have thought of painting differently. ”
When they made their mark, “there was no return.” Galerist-Youtuber James Payne examines the nature of this brand The new great art explained the video aboveThe first in a series in several parts on Pollock's art and the figures that made its cultural impact possible. Even more important than Greenberg, in Payne's story, is the colleague of Pollock – and, in time, his wife – Lee Krasnerwhich he also gives him work.
We also see the paintings of the American regionalist Thomas Hart Benton, professor of Pollock; The Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros, in the workshop in which participated in the workshop; And even Pablo Picasso, who has exerted subtle influences but detectable on his own work of Pollock. Other sources of non -artistic inspiration Payne explore include Carl Gustav Jung's psychological theory, with the School of Therapy Pollock engaged at the end of the task years and at the start of the district. It was in these sessions that he produced the “Psychoanalytic drawings”, “ One of the many categories of Pollock's work that will surprise those who only know him through his large, completely abstract cans of drip paintings. Everyone represents a step in a complex evolutionary process: Pollock may have been the ideal artist for the new American post-war world, but it is hardly entirely formed of Wyoming.
Related content:
Watch Portrait of an artist: Jackson PollockThe 1987 documentary told by Melvyn Bragg
How the CIA secretly used Jackson Pollock and other abstract expressionists to fight the Cold War
MoMA teaches you to paint like Pollock, Rothko, Kooning and other abstract painters
Based in Seoul, Colin MArshall Written and broadcastTS on cities, language and culture. His projects include the substack newsletter Books on cities And the book The stateless city: a walk through Los Angeles from the 21st century. Follow it on the social network formerly known as Twitter in @ColinmArshall.
At Learnopoly, Finn has championed a mission to deliver unbiased, in-depth reviews of online courses that empower learners to make well-informed decisions. With over a decade of experience in financial services, he has honed his expertise in strategic partnerships and business development, cultivating both a sharp analytical perspective and a collaborative spirit. A lifelong learner, Finn’s commitment to creating a trusted guide for online education was ignited by a frustrating encounter with biased course reviews.