Jackson Pollock Piece, Creative Essay Example

Jackson Pollock’s style of painting, as exemplified by Convergence (1952), is considered important and innovative to art history. The piece features splattered paint of various colors, arranged in no apparent rhyme or reason; however, as the viewer studies the work, the individual strokes and subtleties of color begin to appear more obviously. So, out of what seems to be chaos and confusion, spring details of feelings that can be explained with words, bringing some order to the initial confusion of its message. There is a sense here of the infinite depth and variety of human feeling.

Pollock’s technique was unique. Influenced by the renowned Thomas Hart Benton, a Regionalist painter, Pollock’s work gave rise to what we know as Abstract Painting. His work fits into the New York School of Abstract Expressionism, labeled alongside artists like Mark Rothko. Pollock worked intrinsically as opposed to realistically.

While in residence at Spring, New York, under the patronage of the Guggenheim family, Pollock freed himself from vertical canvases, brushes, and pallets and placed his canvases on the floor and walked around them –and on them—as he dripped and splashed paint onto them. These actions were new. Not only was he producing art in a different manner, he was allowing viewers to experience art in a new way. This is significant for art’s sake and society’s sake, because Pollock lived and worked during a time when the United States was under the spell of McCarthey censorships. His were times when “new” and “different” could be construed as “un-American” in the aftermath of World War II.

References

Koppelman, D. (2009). Jackson Pollock –and true and false ambition: The urgent difference. The Aesthetic Realism Foundation –Art History & Criticism: Talks on the Siegel Theory of Opposites in Relation to Aesthetics. Retrieved July 8, 2010 from http://www.terraingallery.org/Jackson-Pollock-Ambition-DK.html

Pollock, J. (1952). Convergence: Number 10 (Oil and Enamel on Canvas, 93.5 inches x 155 inches), Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York. The Art Archive. Retrieved July 9, 2010 from http://www.artchive.com/artchive/P/pollock/pollock_convergence.jpg.html