Water, Kwong Ka Ming Individual presentation: Jackson Pollock 'White Light'

Jackson Pollock: White Light 

1954

Oil, enamel, and aluminum paint on canvas,

 48 1/4 in x 38 1/4 in (122.4 x 96.9 cm).

Museum of Modern Art, New York  (The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection) 

The famous America artist I want to introduce is Jackson Pollock and his painting White Light. For the presentation, first, I will talk about the basic information of the Jackson Pollock. Secondly, I will analysis his Artworks. Then, the Artworks’ elements and the key quote. Finally, the question I am interested.

Jackson Pollock is born in January 28, 1912 in USA. He is an important influential American painter and plays a major role in the abstract expressionist movement. He is famous at Action Painting with his unique Drip and splash style. What is meaning of his painting always had a great discussion among people. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety, and he was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and struggled with alcoholism for most of his life. Pollock died at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related car accident. So poor, he was very young and talented.

For development of his painting style. In 1940s, he starts experimenting in different painting technique.  At the same time, he also experimenting with sand and broken glass to traditional art materials in his painting. His painting style influenced from Mexican realist and the surrealist. The significant characteristic is he frustrates his wild powerful stroke. His painting become very famous and his Career peak is 1950s. His painting is still making influence today.

Jackson Pollock is an Action painter of abstract expressionism. So, what is abstract expressionism? It was a term used in 1929 by Alfred Barr,Jr. to refer to the nonfigurative and nonrepresentational painting of Kandinsky. From Kandinsky’s painting “Composition VII” painted in 1913, we can see the characteristic of nonfigurative and nonrepresentational theme. He also said it is the most complex piece he ever painted. Also, ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM is generally used to categorize the New York school of painter and the Artists from many different parts of America and Europe. And it is the effect of the unconscious on creativity, from expressionism; they inherited an affinity for the expressive qualities of paint. We can see the significant aspect in the painting is Brushstrokes.

Now, I am going to introduce one of his paintings. It is White Light, it was painted in 1954, it is Oil, enamel, and aluminum paint on canvas, and its size is 122.4 x 96.9 cm.

Now, it is in Museum of Modern Art, New York. What is mean of this painting? To compare to his previous abstract painting, like number 31, White Light may be is just a way of expresses Jackson Pollock’s frustration, hope, optimism and excitement. White light is coming from a lot of black to the white horizon. The color black only occupies a small proportion, but the white and different bright colors are in a greater proportion. With the colorful mood, this painting may express great optimism and excitement. His signature painting style and splash and drip technique can be identifying clearly in this painting.

One of the big difference of this painting is, it wasn’t painted on the floor by studio like his previous abstract painting on the large canvases. Jackson Pollock paint at a small canvases; it is senses of dynamic movement condense into a smaller space. So it is not well known as his other famous paintings. However is still got a strong response from viewers.

On the other hand, White Light eliminates all reference to recognizable objects. Lines of different widths and textures swirl through the picture space and are slashed diagonally at various points. There is an underlying chromatic organization of yellows and oranges blending with, and crisscrossed by, thick blacks and whites. The white as indicated by the title, is what predominates, and the intensity of Pollock’s light is everywhere present. His habit of trimming his finished canvases enhances their dynamic quality, for the lines appear to move rhythmically in and out of the picture plane, unbound by either an edge or a frame, these also makes some tense within the lines and the whole picture. These also make me feel a bit tense with the line and the composition.

In fact Jackson Pollock did paint a lot of this kind of painting. We can see them in this slide, one of the most famous abstract painting is, ‘Number 31’, in 1950, medium is oil and enamel on canvas. Now, it is in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It is very large in size, which is 269.5 x 530.8 cm.

From His artwork, we can see that is also the performance of form of art. A good abstract painting should be including the combination of both order and variety. They are very important aspects in art. With order, we would not be confused, we can have clearer vision, and with variety we would not be bored. One of the important elements of order was unity, it can be achieve by compositional balance of objects within the painting itself. Order can remain the relationship between visual elements. We can see the unity of line and color and the unique order in Jackson Pollock’s painting. Also, it can create the effect of Balance, contrast, emphasis and rhythm in the painting.  All these can hold our attention within the frame. So Jackson Pollock’s painting is always attractive and catch audience’s eye.

Variety is the emotional elements of the painting and it can arouse our emotions.  Through Jackson Pollock’s paintings, the rhythm of the line, mass, space, colour can be observed as the unique characteristic of his painting and they are the emotional elements with variety. Line can characterize objects in a painting and communicates the artist’s feelings to audience. Mass is the way of volume of object are communicated in the painting, it need our imagination. Space is proportion of the painting, it related to the representation of the size of the object on the canvas. Colour can direct our emotion, that why we can easily speak feeling of colour of it in terms of emotional words such as bright, dull, happy. As we can see “White Light” use a lot of different bright colour such as red, orange, yellow, blue ect, through this colorful painting we may feel a bit hope and optimistic, especially compare to his pervious work ‘Number 31’. With these entire element that Jackson Pollock present, we can easy tell our feeling and get the paintings meaning, so that we can understand them easily.

Jackson Pollock developed his characteristic methods of applying paint and his significant aspect, brushstrokes. He dripped, splattered, sprayed, rolled and threw paint on their canvases, with the result that the final image reflects his activity in the creative process. These form of art provide an insight into the nature of visual art. For communication of emotion, through this art form, Jackson Pollock’s deep emotions are intentionally communicated to the viewer. They also build the connection with other forms of art. But from his panting, it do not show Content or Subject matter.

Jackson Pollock produced a lot of great abstract painting. However, Jackson Pollock ’s painting always misunderstood by critics, they said him was just playing crazy. And they called his work a joke and nicked named him “JACK THE DRIPPER” For the people who support him, such as feminist, they believed that his action painting is depicting a male fantasy on the symbolic by the action of creating. The most important supporter is his wife Lee Krasner.

In1941, Jackson Pollock live with his brother in a tiny apartment in New York City, he exhibiting an occasional painting in-group shows. That's when he meets artist Lee Krasner, who puts her career on hold to be his companion, lover, champion, wife, and, in essence, caretaker. To get him away from booze, insecurity, and the stress of city life, they move to the Hamptons where nature and sobriety help Pollock achieve a breakthrough in style. In 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy.

I found there had a application of the painting White Light. It is Free Jazz music Album that used White Light as the cover of original CD package. I think it is very interesting and creative when other media incorporated with art, painting such as Jackson Pollock’s 1954 painting The White Light.

In Jackson Pollock life, he had a lot of his own art exhibition. 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. This year (2011) the Abstract Expressionist Art Exhibition in New York also exhibit Jackson Pollock’s abstract painting. His painting is still making influence today.

The key quote is

‘Here was an aspect of painting that still appeared to be unexplored, the sheer handling of paint regardless of any ulterior motive or purpose...He probably remembered stories of Chinese painters who had used such unorthodox methods and also the practice of American Indians who make pictures in the sand for magic purposes. The resulting tangle of lines satisfies two opposing standards of twentieth-century art: the longing for childlike simplicity and spontaneity that evokes the memory of childish scrawls at the time of life before children even start to form images; and at the opposite end, the sophisticated interest in the problems of ‘pure painting.’

Question:

It seems that everyone can draw the abstract drawing. Is it the subject matter is not important in a painting? What are the criteria to be a good abstract drawing and how to evaluate the drawing?

I think whether a painting have a subject matter is not important. It depends on the artist’s purpose of doing his painting. If the artist just wants to express his feeling through painting or just want to present his emotion to the audience, I think subject matter is not so important. But, if the artist has some story and message want to present, I think subject matter is important in that kind of painting.

I think it is very difficult to evaluate whether the abstract drawing is good or bad. Because every abstract drawing is just come from painter’s feeling, they may paint them in a very casual way. And Aesthetics of Art is a very subjective judgment; the perspective of beauty is difference for people to people. Aesthetic of the artwork need to evaluate through a very detail analysis. Different abstract work of art communicates different things in different ways. It is very difficult to judge whether the abstract drawing is good or bad. I think there are need to have strict criteria to evaluate the drawing.  But when we looking at abstract drawing, we can try to appreciate it by focus on the rhythm of the line, mass, space, colour, Order, Unity, variety of line and color and the harmony of the painting.

Why am I interested in this artwork? Because I think Jackson Pollock did a good job in invention of this abstract expression painting. I appreciate his artworks can back to the simplicity, and just use the basic material of painting, paint and the brush with his creativity, then can create this kind of beautiful painting.  We can appreciate the original beautiful elements of a painting, such as paint, colour, line, and brush stroke. Through this abstract expression painting I can feel the emotion that Jackson Pollock want to convey, and I can actually feel how he paint this kind of action painting by expression his feeling through his body movement.  That was very awesome. 

Reference

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

http://moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2010/abexny/

http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=79481

http://wn.com/Jackson_Pollock

Laurie Schneider-Adams, Art Across Time, Vol II, 2nd edition 

(Boston: McGraw Hill College, 2002).

E.H.Gombrich, The Story of Art (PHAIDON)

Leja, Referaming Abstract Expressionism