This sort of painting can mean many things to different people,Pollock painted this during the height of the cold war and all that around him in America during the early 1950’s when it was not easy to be a Artist….

I like to think of this paiuting as a prelude to the internet, which though not invented then , to my mind shows the intereconnection of everthing and everybody on different levels.

Asl someone else what they se in this painting and they will come up with a  another answer

what do you see?.

What if you were a wall, a blank canvas, a work of art yet to be created?

If you haven’t already, peek at Joy Part 1, and then…

Imagine… You are a broad expanse of wall – indoors or outside – material of your choice, and located anywhere in the world you’d like. Your surface is ideal for absorbing images and words, and showing them off as your own personal masterpiece. Showing off yourself as your own masterpiece. Now what?

Create yourself! Feel the joy!

Here’s a can of Krylon spray paint. Go!

What? One won’t do?

Okay then, select five, and enjoy your afternoon. Decorate yourself! Some of you have done it already – in smaller spaces – with tattoos. Some of you dream of having the courage to do it with tattoos. (And some of us would rather be a wall, and skip the tattoos, thanks.)

Well this is your chance to get wild! Cover yourself entirely, or leave areas untouched. You are the blank canvas: pure graffiti, figures, markings, quotes, formulas, diagrams, masses of color, quotations, T-accounts, HTML if you like!

So tell me -

• Are you an outdoor wall or an indoor wall?
• Where are you located, and how are you lit?
• What colors have you chosen?
• Have you asked for help in creating yourself?
• Who do you want helping you?
• If you were a painting, which painting would you be?

Do drop in to visit later this afternoon (I’ll have coffee waiting), and then describe what you’ve become. Tell me what adventures have taken place in your afternoon of painting. Declare yourself – visually, texturally. See what happens.

For fun:

This is a TOTALLY fun site where you can experience Jackson Pollock and the pleasure of splattering and dripping. It’s a blast! Give it a shot.

As for me…

I’m going to think about this, too. I may be in a very hot ruby red mood, masses of brilliant, clashing color. Yes. That’s what I’d like today, with a gentle, smooth surface, and light line scrawled through me. You need to approach to read me, to decipher the cursive that I will wear draped, dribbled, laced and luxuriant.

More than that? I don’t know yet. But I’ll ponder it, slowly, and otherwise, spend this day in the moment. Picturing paintings by Vlaminck, Matisse, Jorn, de Kooning, Guston, and the wrenching masterpieces of Michel Macréau. Color and emotion. Glorious, exuberant, mysterious, rambunctious, sprawling, enigmatic, mystical, mythical moments. I’m feeling fauve. Joyfully.

Just because.

• Your artistic self?
• Your unspoken, truest portrait for all to see?

© D A Wolf

Big Little Wolf’s Daily Plate of Crazy

Yesterday I mentioned that sculptor (and filmmaker) Tom Price was set to appear in the BBC4 documentary “Where is Modern Art Now?”. Tom showed with us as part of “60 Miles By Road or Rail” earlier on in the year and is a friend of the Fishmarket.

It’s available to watch now on BBC’s iPlayer right here.

The highlights for me (in chronological order) are:- a thoroughly charming Anthony Caro, video footage of the YBAs looking genuinely young, Michael Landy’s assessment of the art world and his suggestion that the focus is moving from the value of art to the art itself, Cornelia Parker’s flattened brass instruments, Grayson Perry describing Jackson Pollock as a “rubbish” painter, and of course Tom Price’s work.

Interesting viewing.

Normally, I accompany my children to their extracurricular classes and workshops, but my five-year old daughter decided that she was ready to attend the painting party on her own.   So, I waited anxiously outside while she joyfully joined in with the rest of the children to learn about the artistic style of Jackson Pollock and take a whack at his abstract expressionist technique.

From right outside the studio, I espied the energetic instructor bouncing around assisting the children with their paintings.  At one point, I caught a glimpse of them on the floor dripping, splattering, and pouring paint.  Doused in paint, my little girl was absolutely loving it! 

I may try these “action paintings” at home with the other children using these lesson plans.   Surely, the other girls would be delighted to have a go at this as well, insha Allah.

Been thinking about Jackson Pollock, and Pollock’s interest in Jungian psychology. Reading around some of Jung’s ideas and considering Pollock as an archetypical hero in Jungian terminology.

Here is a web definition of Jung’s archetype of the hero:

‘The hero basically represents the ego. The hero is something we all identify with, something we all want to project to the world: a balanced, gallant personality with the ability to face obstacle with grace and strength. However, the hero is very ignorant of the unconscious, just like the ego is. The hero archetype seeks to battle these shadows, unaware of the fact that itself is created from the same thing. In other words our egos often seek to individualize ourselves, to make decisions with as little consequence as possible, yet it’s still connected to a collective psyche that includes hidden motives and drives. In Jungian psychology, the hero represents a self-sacrificing character that faces great adversity for some greater purpose.’

Collective consciousness how does it function on the web/ Cyberspace?

If archetypes are rooted to a shared consciousness what happens when that shared consciousness becomes a mechanical/electronic structure rather than an organic structure as it has previously been? Is this the reason for the rise in much negative human experience: cyber bullying/sense of isolation/ our need for rapidly changing identities?

According to Jung we are born with a psychological heritage as well as a biological heritage. Both according to Jung are important determinants of behavior and experience:

“just as the human body represents a whole museum of organs, each with a long evolutionary period behind it, so we should expect to find that the mind is organized in a similar way. It can no more be a product without history than is the body in which it exists” (Jung 1964, p. 67).

Running Head: Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock

By Darius F. Jenkins

Abstract Expressionism is a non objective art form that shifted the focus of art and culture from Paris to America. Art from this period is created by applying pure emotion and feeling to a canvas. Jackson Pollock’s painting added an important dimension to art and forever changed the way art was viewed and appreciated.

Jackson Pollock was a pioneer of Abstract Expressionism who impacted American culture. His painting title Convergence exemplifies the kind of work Jackson Pollock was known for. Before Jackson Pollock’s Convergence there was little attention placed on art in America. The art scene had been dominated by European nations such as France and Germany. Pollock was able to influence the entire post war America by challenging the way art was constructed and understood.

He added another dimension to painting. He saw a canvas as an arena where emotion and action should discourse. Pollock used a technique called Action Painting, which was about the action involved in the painting to create his unprecedented super abstract works of art. According to Newsweek Magazine, how the paint was applied to the surface was more important than the result. (Newsweek, 1999)

The pinnacle of the Abstract Expressionism movement is exemplified by Convergence and all of its mystery. There was no conformity to traditional methods in Pollock’s art.  Of course this wasn’t the first time we have seen abstract art but art from the Surrealism movement maintained a visible form and subject matter.

Pollock challenged contemporary artist and culture to step outside of the normal visual constraints when viewing his art. Pollock displayed his feelings on the canvas unlike any artist before him. He adopted the “drip” technique to painting and started a cultural phenomenon in America. His importance and significant contribution to art id his multiple appearances on in Life magazine. This fact alone gave him much respect and credibility. It was not only his popular statues that elevated him into the realm of greatness but the revenue received from his work. Pollock was iconic in America symbolizing a shift of power in the world and a shift in how people interpreted art.

References

Plagens, P(1999 December 28).Jack the Dripper Returns. Newsweek, 26,132-133

Retrieved September21, 2009 from Academic Search Premiere database.

Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality and struggled with alcoholism all of his life. In 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy. He died at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related, single-car crash. In December 1956, he was given a memorial retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, and a larger more comprehensive exhibition there in 1967. More recently, in 1998 and 1999, his work was honored with large-scale retrospective exhibitions at MoMA and at The Tate in London.

Source and complete biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock

…from Woody Allen’s Play It Again, Sam.

A prendre avec pincettes, il s’agit d’un classement britannique…

Mes préférées :

Jackson Pollock en pleine action :

Karajan drivant la 5e symph’ de Beethoven :

L’inénarrable Rooftop Concert des Beatles :

Jackson Pollock

Lavender Mist 1950

Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality and struggled with alcoholism all of his life. In 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy He died at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related, single-car crash. In December 1956, he was given a memorial retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, and a larger more comprehensive exhibition there in 1967. More recently, in 1998 and 1999, his work was honored with large-scale retrospective exhibitions at MoMA and at The Tate in London. In 2000, Pollock was the subject of an Academy Award-winning film directed by and starring Ed Harris.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock

“The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves.”

Willem de Kooning

Took a few days away from the essay to give time for the presentation  feed back to settle in.

Doing some more reading  brought me back to the abstract expressionists; in particular Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning because of the emphasis on  gesture and physicality in their works.

Here is the link again for the interactive Pollock site that  I posted about  at the beginning of the course back in 2007/8.

http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

The interest for me when making these digital Pollock style pieces is that the focus on the  physical engagement of the original works  is gone. I  read recently, that all of our online interaction happens through hand movements on the mouse or keyboard. What used to take bodily physical motion and time to achieve has become condensed in to small low impact isolated physical actions.

How does the concept of the ‘artist’ of 60 years ago may compare to today’s  understanding of the term ‘artist’ … the differences of expectations and contexts of that term; where that may currently fit in to a sense of global identity and propaganda?

Historically, abstract expressionism in the US has been interpreted as an exercise of a form of cultural imperialism by the USA a response to the cold war.

Threads seem to  lead to more questions in philosophical concepts.

Rationally I understand that the essay is an academic exercise. The goal should be to make a good contained job of writing and presenting the essay.

Just aim to get the essay finished.

“My painting does not come from the easel. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting.” – Jackson Pollock

If you think you can do better:

http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

I can’t.

and again.

An interesting article from smithsonianmag.com:

Did the Abstract Expressionist hide his name amid the swirls and torrents of a legendary 1943 mural?

• By Henry Adams
• Smithsonian magazine, November 2009

It was my wife, Marianne Berardi, who first saw the letters.

We were looking at a reproduction of Jackson Pollock’s breakthrough work, Mural, an 8-by 20-foot canvas bursting with physical energy that, in 1943, was unlike anything seen before.

The critic Clement Greenberg, Pollock’s principal champion, said he took one look at the painting and realized that “Jackson was the greatest painter this country has produced.” A Museum of Modern Art curator, the late Kirk Varnedoe, said Mural established Jackson Pollock as the world’s premier modern painter.

I was researching a book about Pollock’s lifelong relationship with his mentor, Thomas Hart Benton, the famed regionalist and muralist, when I sat puzzling over a reproduction of Mural after breakfast one morning with Marianne, herself an art historian. She suddenly said she could make out the letters S-O-N in blackish paint in the upper right area of the mural. Then she realized JACKSON ran across the entire top. And finally she saw POLLOCK below that.

The characters are unorthodox, even ambiguous, and largely hidden. But, she pointed out, it could hardly be random coincidence to find just those letters in that sequence.

I was flabbergasted. It’s not every day that you see something new in one of the 20th century’s most important artworks.

I’m now convinced that Pollock wrote his name in large letters on the canvas—indeed, arranged the whole painting around his name. As far as I can tell, no one has previously made this assertion. Nor is there evidence that Pollock himself, who was loath to talk about his art and left behind few written records, ever mentioned this coded gesture.

I’ve shared my theory with several Pollock experts. They’ve had mixed reactions, from “no way” to “far-fetched” to “maybe.”

“It’s feasible,” says Sue Taylor, an art historian at Portland State University, who has studied Pollock’s 1942 canvas Stenographic Figure, which includes written symbols. “Pollock would often begin with some sort of figurative device to which he would then respond—and eventually bury under layers of paint. Letters and numbers, moreover, frequently appear in works of the early 1940s.”

It may not be possible to answer the question definitively unless scientists use X-ray scanning or some other method to trace which pigments were put down first. At the moment there are no plans to do such an analysis.

If my theory holds up, it has many implications. Mural, commissioned by the collector Peggy Guggenheim for her New York City apartment, is the stuff of legend. Owned by the University of Iowa since Guggenheim donated it in 1948, the painting is said to be worth $140 million. (A later Jackson Pollock painting, Number 5, 1948, reportedly sold in 2006 for $140 million—the highest price ever paid for a work of art.) Mural is so central to the Pollock mystique that in the 2000 movie Pollock, the artist (played by Ed Harris), having stared perplexedly at a giant empty canvas for months, executes Mural in a single session the night before it’s due to be delivered. That (standard) version of events, originally advanced by Pollock’s wife, the artist Lee Krasner, reinforces the image of Pollock as an anguished, spontaneous genius. But the art critic Francis V. O’Connor has debunked the story, saying Pollock probably executed Mural during the summer of 1943, not in one night in late December.

Pollock’s possibly writing his name in Mural testifies to an overlooked feature of his works: they have a structure, contrary to the popular notion that they could be done by any 5-year-old with a knack for splatters. In my view, Pollock organized the painting around his name according to a compositional system—vertical markings that serve as the loci of rhythmic spirals—borrowed directly from his mentor, Benton.

Pollock had studied under Benton for two years and once told a friend that he wanted Mural to be comparable to a Benton work, though he didn’t have the technical ability to make a great realistic mural and needed to do something different.

I have found no evidence that Pollock wrote his name in such fashion on any other canvas. In a way, that makes sense. To Pollock, I think, Mural announced that he was replacing Benton, a father figure whom he once described as “the foremost American painter today.” It was Pollock’s way of making a name for himself.

 

Some more fun interactive art  videos and websites:

Have some fun, and paint like Jackson Pollock on this flash website:

http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

Even someone with the blackest thumb like me ca’tn kill their virtual flower garden

Paint Like Picasso here:

http://www.mrpicassohead.com/create.html

Check out the interesting interactive video for Arcade Fire’s song “Neon Bible” , warning that it doesn’t seem to play too smoothly however. There is another one for the song “black mirror”

Interesting art pieces from Creaktif design studio can be seen here

The most wonderful and beautiful flash games can be found on the website,  Orisinal.com, my favorites are bubble bees and bum bum koala.

Finally I’d love to share one of my favorite videos plus a new one freshly discovered, from Vancouver Film School:

Check out their youtube film channel, I love their classic animation playlist

From the Wallman Hall stairwell, artists can look across the campus to a kindred spirit in the form of a great old ginko, spilling color on the ground with all the reckless bravura of a Jackson Pollock, though the yellow may put one more in mind of that mad visionary Van Gogh, flailing his canvas amid acres & acres of nodding sunflowers . . .

The critic Harold Rosenberg remarked: “At a certain point American painters, one after the other, began to consider the canvas as an arena in which to act, instead of a space in which to reproduce, redraw, analyse or ‘express’ a present or imagined object. Thus the canvas was no longer the support of a picture, but an event.” What are your thoughts regarding Rosenberg’s view of Action Painters like Jackson Pollock and the transformation of the act of painting into an “event”?