(Jan 21, 1971)
The subject of today's art critique is none other than the abstract expressionist movement,
encapsulated in recent years by artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de
Kooning and the ever-resistant Mark Rothko. As I paced the stark white halls of
the Tate Modern yesterday, I was struck specifically by a piece of art by
Jackson Pollock entitled "Summertime: Number 9A" (1948).
What astonished me most
upon viewing this artwork was the almost "readable" emotion behind
the various paint strokes and colors. Its no wonder that artists like Pollock
have been described by critcs such as Irving Sandler as revolutionary. Sandler
notes that this may be due to the ambiguity of his work - "One cannot
determine the degree of spontaneity as against the degree of deliberate
control. Nor can one draw the fine line, if in fact such a line exists, that
separates psychic urgencies from conscious artistry" (271).
Another painter, Manny Farber, had this to say about Pollock's work:
"violent in its expression, endlessly fascinating in detail, without
superficiality... Pollock's aim in painting seems to be to express feeling that
ranges from pleasant enthusiasm through wildness to explosiveness, as purely
and as well as possible" (O'Connor 37).
It is evident from these critiques that Pollock's approach to art not only has an audience, but has one that is generally in praise of his style. Abstract expressionism relies on these sort of expressed feelings Farber touches on - the extremely chaotic and the extremely orderly, combined into one to invoke emotion, reaction, an overwhelming feeling that is positively indescribable.
Pollock is not the only artist from this style that has touched on an indescribable emotional connection with art. The infamous Salvador Dali painted a piece called "The Sublime Moment" in 1938 that contains a plethora of hallucinatory imagery and starkly contrasts the realism of the landscape, mountains and trees with bizarre representations of snails and fried eggs cooking upon odd minimalistic architecture. The themes addressed in this painting are old hat to the art world, though: since the 17th century, artists have been creating odd dichotomies between the real and the fictional to keep their viewers guessing on what they believe to be the power behind vision, emotion, and reality.
What could this movement mean for the art of tomorrow? Is this the "new age" of art? What does the future hold for "classical" artists in comparison? For those answers, we must wait with bated breath and whispering humbleness.
Pollock is not the only artist from this style that has touched on an indescribable emotional connection with art. The infamous Salvador Dali painted a piece called "The Sublime Moment" in 1938 that contains a plethora of hallucinatory imagery and starkly contrasts the realism of the landscape, mountains and trees with bizarre representations of snails and fried eggs cooking upon odd minimalistic architecture. The themes addressed in this painting are old hat to the art world, though: since the 17th century, artists have been creating odd dichotomies between the real and the fictional to keep their viewers guessing on what they believe to be the power behind vision, emotion, and reality.
What could this movement mean for the art of tomorrow? Is this the "new age" of art? What does the future hold for "classical" artists in comparison? For those answers, we must wait with bated breath and whispering humbleness.
References:
- Irving Sandler, "The Triumph of American Painting - A History of Abstract Expressionism". 1970. Harper & Row Publishers. New York NY. Print
- Francis V. O'Connor. "Jackson Pollock". 1967. The Museum of Modern Art. New York, NY. Print.
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