Jacksonman #1 Painting

"The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through." "Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is." "It doesn't make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement." "You can't learn techniques and then try to become a painter. Techniques are a result." "New needs need new techniques. And the modern artists have found new ways and new means of making their statements... the modern painter cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any other past culture." "I want to express my feelings rather than illustrate them.” "Energy and motion made visible – memories arrested in space.” "I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own." "When I say artist I mean the man who is building things - creating molding the earth - whether it be the plains of the west - or the iron ore of Penn. It's all a big game of construction - some with a brush - some with a shovel - some choose a pen.” -Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock /ˈpɒlək/ (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his technique of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a horizontal surface ("drip technique"), enabling him to view and paint his canvases from all angles. It was also called All-over painting and "action painting", since he covered the entire canvas and used the force of his whole body to paint, often in a frenetic dancing style. This extreme form of abstraction divided the critics: some praised the immediacy of the creation, while others derided the random effects. In 2016, Pollock's painting titled Number 17A was reported to have fetched US$200 million in a private purchase. A reclusive and volatile personality, Pollock struggled with alcoholism for most of his life. In 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy. Pollock died at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related single-car accident when he was driving. In December 1956, four months after his death, Pollock was given a memorial retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. A larger, more comprehensive exhibition of his work was held there in 1967. In 1998 and 1999, his work was honored with large-scale retrospective exhibitions at MoMA and at The Tate in London. Pollock was introduced to the use of liquid paint in 1936 at an experimental workshop in New York City by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. He later used paint pouring as one of several techniques on canvases of the early 1940s, such as Male and Female and Composition with Pouring I. After his move to Springs, he began painting with his canvases laid out on the studio floor and he developed what was later called his "drip" technique. From 1938 to 1942 Pollock worked for the WPA Federal Art Project. During this time Pollock was trying to deal with his established alcoholism; from 1938 through 1941 he underwent Jungian psychotherapy with Dr. Joseph L. Henderson and later with Dr. Violet Staub de Laszlo in 1941–42. Henderson engaged him through his art, encouraging Pollock to make drawings. Jungian concepts and archetypes were expressed in his paintings. Some historians have hypothesized that Pollock might have had bipolar disorder. Pollock signed a gallery contract with Peggy Guggenheim in July 1943. He received the commission to create the 8-by-20-foot (2.4 by 6.1 m) Mural(1943) for the entry to her new townhouse. At the suggestion of her friend and advisor Marcel Duchamp, Pollock painted the work on canvas, rather than the wall, so that it would be portable. After seeing the big mural, the art critic Clement Greenberg wrote: "I took one look at it and I thought, 'Now that's great art,' and I knew Jackson was the greatest painter this country had produced." The catalog introducing his first exhibition described Pollock's talent as "volcanic. It has fire. It is unpredictable. It is undisciplined. It spills out of itself in a mineral prodigality, not yet crystallized.” Pollock's most famous paintings were made during the "drip period" between 1947 and 1950. He became famous following an August 8, 1949 four-page spread in Life magazine that asked, "Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?" Thanks to the mediation of Alfonso Ossorio, a close friend of Pollock and the art historian Michel Tapié, the young gallery owner Paul Facchetti, from March 7, 1952, managed to realize the first exhibition of Pollock's works from 1948 to 1951 in his Studio Paul Facchetti in Paris and in Europe. At the peak of his fame, Pollock abruptly abandoned the drip style. Pollock's work after 1951 was darker in color, including a collection painted in black on unprimed canvases. These paintings have been referred to as his "Black pourings" and when he exhibited them at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York, none of them sold. Parsons later sold one to a friend at half the price. These works show Pollock attempting to find a balance between abstraction and depictions of the figure. He later returned to using color and continued with figurative elements. During this period, Pollock had moved to the Sidney Janis Gallery, a more commercial gallery; the demand for his work from collectors was great. In response to this pressure, along with personal frustration, his alcoholism deepened. Lenore "Lee" Krasner (born Lena Krassner on October 27, 1908 – June 19, 1984) was an American abstract expressionistpainter, with a strong speciality in collage, who was married to Jackson Pollock. Although there was much cross-pollination between their two styles, the relationship somewhat overshadowed her contribution for some time. Krasner’s training, influenced by George Bridgman and Hans Hofmann, was the more formalized, especially in the depiction of human anatomy, and this enriched Pollock’s more intuitive and unstructured output. Krasner is now seen as a key transitional figure within abstraction, who connected early-20th-century art with the new ideas of postwar America, and her work fetches high prices at auction. She is also one of the few female artists to have had a retrospective show at the Museum of Modern Art. Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim (/ˈɡʊɡənhaɪm/ GUUG-ən-hyme; August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) was an American art collector, bohemian and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down with the Titanic in 1912, and the niece of Solomon R. Guggenheim, who established the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Guggenheim collected art in Europe and America primarily between 1938 and 1946. She exhibited this collection as she built it; in 1949, she settled in Venice, where she lived and exhibited her collection for the rest of her life. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is a modern art museum on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, and is one of the most visited attractions in Venice. Note: This is the first Jackson Pollock inspried piece that I did in October of 2019. I had some leftover house paint, and after watching Ed Harris’ film plus a few documentaries on Pollock, I decided to give it a try. Another Note (7/22/21): After finding more paintings I did in 2017 and 2018, I feel I should elaborate more on why this was the first Jackson Pollock attempt. First, it was the largest canvas I had worked at the time (the next being 36x48in). Second, this was the first time I used house paint (on a canvas). Third, when I started painting I didn’t have that much of a classical or abstract art education. To be honest, I vaguely knew Pollock’s work and wasn’t even aware there was a terminology for “drip” painting. The Catholic school I attended cut art and music classes in the mid 90s (I bet you can guess where that money went to… i.e. legal fees and lawsuits). And if it wasn’t for a friend’s mom, who volunteered to teach art at the school, and also arranged trips to the Art Institute of Chicago (One of which was during a very large Monet exhibit, a very inspiring day... Thanks Mrs. B.!), I would know a lot less. Lastly, with the older and smaller “drip” paintings, I just squeezed the acrylic paint out of the tube like it was ketchup going on fries (or an omelette). And that’s something I've been good at since I was little.

Painting:Acrylic on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:80 W x 40 H x 1.5 D in

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