Jackson Pollack (in Off-topic)

I'm a fan of Jackson Pollack... Actually he is my favorite artist by far.
I just wanted to make a post... to talk about Pollack and to let people who don't know him get a little introduction to his awesomeness... and I don't use awful words like awesomeness lightly.

Jackson Pollack was an abstract expressionist who used a technique of painting called "Action Painting". He basically took a huge canvas and laid it on the ground. Standing on it, he would hold a stick or brush (or anything he felt like trying) and a can of paint and would drizzle and splatter the paint onto the canvas from standing position instead of actually applying the paint with a brush... His early works were more conventional paintings but were still abstract. I don't think I've ever seen a Pollack piece that had any recognizable anythings in it... He paints paintings of nothing... Just paint... Paintings of paint... beautiful paint.

I'm no expert on Jackson Pollack but I love his work... and I actually have some cool ties with him...

Jackson Pollack was married to an artist named Lee Krasner and lived with her on Long Island until he died in 1956 in a car crash.

So here's my tie... My stepfather wrote an essay on Jackson Pollack and it was sent by his professor to Lee Krasner (about 1960 or so) and she hired my stepfather to help sort out Jacksons personal effects and he actually moved to Long Island... He actually stayed in Jacksons barn, where Pollack painted!!! So eventually my stepfather was asked to do some interviews with Jacksons friends, artists, and colleagues... Very cool... I'm so jealous of him... but at least he's a good story teller...

Another thing is a new book called "Such Childish Joy" which is about Jackson Pollack... The name of the book was taken from an interview that my stepfather did with DeKooning, who was Jacksons contemporary and friend... Many of the interviews that my stepfather did are in the book!

Anyway, if you've never seen any of Pollacks work, Google Image it... Lemme think of some favorites to mention so you can look them up and see for yourself his talent.

No. 5, 1948 (That's actually the type of names he gave to his paintings... so looking this up will get you results on Pollack...)

So...
"No. 5, 1948"
"No. 32, 1950"
"Painting"
"Male & Female" (An early painting done before "Action Painting"...) Very awesome.

That should be enough for now... check him out and tell me what you think.

I think his name is Jackson Pollock

Good call, you're right... Google auto-fixed it for me... Pollock, Thanks.

I... don't see his significance. So because he invented a new way to paint abstractly he should be recognized for it? I'm not trying to insult your view of him, I'm just not sure what makes him stand out more than other painters.

I wasn't trying to point out his significance... merely pointing out that I think he is great, and just wanted to give a little history... And... just so you know, his significance is this... Basically every artist alive considered him the cream of the crop. He changed the way everyone looked at art... Up until Pollock, painters always painted pictures of something, abstract or not, it was a picture of something... So he just painted. I'm not trying to say this guy is the best artist ever... there are many people who can paint a painting to look exactly like a picture... but if you ask them to throw paint at canvas, it'll most likely look like *expletive deleted"... And I happen to think that when Pollock throws paint at canvas it looks like me being happy. Don't know what to tell you... When I look at Pollock I'm just looking at colors and I like to not have to think about anything while looking at art... I like to just stare and go, "derrrrrrrrrr..." Pollock makes me happy. That's his significance.

Pollock's significance lays mainly in the fact that he was the first American who was able to get a leading position in an international art movement ("abstract expressionism"). This was made possible because the center of the art world had shifted from Paris to New York in the 30s and 40s, when many influential artists fled from Hitler or were persuaded by promises of high positions in the art schools and lots of $s.

On a side note, I am personally more a fan of Willem de Kooning.

Never quite "got" him, interesting is as far as I'd go .Now Van Gogh can get the short hairs prickling on me!

I like to just stare and go, "derrrrrrrrrr..."

I have never needed a painting to achieve this state of mind. =)

If you liked Jackson Pollack, maybe you will love Christo. (sorry for the hi-jack, but I love art!)

He is a wild artist that has done some rather astounding art pieces. Some of them are more memorable as actual "happenings" involving the people part of it rather then the actual visual effect that was the end result. Here are some examples of his work:


Surrounded Islands


Running Fence

And last, but not least:

Wrapped Reichstag

That "Crisco" just celebrates pollution ! At least thats all I can think of when I see that stuff.I realize he probably tries to recycle it but even if he makes 100% its still a waste.

That's a common misperception of Christo. Environmental art grew out of the environmental movement and tries to make people aware that everything that's surrounding them is, in a way, art. So does Christo.

Taken from their site: http://christojeanneclaude.net/errors.html

"So-Called Environmentalists, in the past, have claimed, before each project, that Christo and Jeanne-Claude will hurt the environment. They realized, after the completion that:

1. Christo and Jeanne-Claude are the cleanest artists in the world, all is removed, their large scale works of art are temporary.
2. The sites are restored to their original condition and most materials are recycled. Except in Florida, for the Surrounded Islands. That site was luckily not restored to its original condition. Christo and Jeanne-Claude's workers removed, before the project, at Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s expense, 40 tons of garbage from the eleven Islands (one of the islands was called "beer cans island" – of course the garbage was not restored to the Islands!
3. The Real Environmentalists such as "The Audubon Society" and "The Sierra Club" usually find themselves on Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s side – because they are better informed. They know how much Christo and Jeanne-Claude spend to make the public aware of the environment, through the art work, much more than Environmentalists can afford to do."

Packaging is a big part of our problem ,pollution wise.Wise packaging isn't a problem, it saves by reducing waste.To me that guy celebrates the kind of packaging that is used to foil thieves,that isn't wise ! You can call it art but no matter how you wrap my rear it ain't art!

Did you know that an authentic Pollock can be verified by computer?
Yes, apparently, all of his paintings use fractals(!), so a real Pollock painting is easy to tell from a fake with the appropriate methods... usually.
Awesome artist! I also enjoy his work.

I don't know about 'Christo' though. That's art? Funny to ask that question in a thread about Pollock, but still...