Finding Peace Through Pollock
The ebb and flow of a chaotic mind.
Jackson Pollock was an alcoholic.
Throughout his life he was hospitalized for depression, suffered nervous breakdowns, struggled with anxiety, and endured long sessions of psychotherapy. He was expelled from high school and only briefly studied painting in New York. Some say he suffered from bipolar disorder. Others say he remained unfaithful to his wife. He battled for clarity when all he saw was chaos.
He needed a release.
"A dripping wet canvas covered the entire floor. There was complete silence as Pollock looked at the painting. Then, unexpectedly, he picked up can and paint brush and started to move around the canvas. It was as if he suddenly realized the painting was not finished. His movements, slow at first, gradually became faster and more dance-like as he flung black, white, and rust-coloured paint onto the canvas. He completely forgot that Lee and I were there; he did not seem to hear the click of the camera shutter ... My photography session lasted as long as he kept painting, perhaps half an hour. In all that time, Pollock did not stop. How could one keep up this level of activity? Finally, he said 'This is it'."
It’s called abstract expressionism. Abstract — the unrecognized reality. Expressionism — the expression of emotions. It is one of the most influential phrases for contemporary artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. But what makes this form of art important? It seems like anyone can casually walk into their local art store, find the clearance acrylics, and splatter it on a cheap canvas. It looks easy enough, so why does it matter?
Well, matter is an interesting word. Like beauty, matter is in the eye of the beholder. What I think matters, other people might disagree. That’s what makes art truly beautiful — when it is interpreted to matter or not.
Pollock knew this, but he wasn't trying to please anyone. He wasn’t trying to copy natural landscapes or portraits of a rich man’s profile. He wasn’t trying to illustrate the world around him, he was trying to express the world within him.
And how he went about expressing his emotions was unconventional and avant-garde to say the least.
“During these years Jackson Pollock started to paint in a completely new way. He created art that was very physical. In fact, his method is sometimes called “action painting”. Most artists painted on a surface that stood upright or vertical. But Pollock put his large canvases on the floor so that he could move around all four sides of his work. He also used very liquid paints so that he could easily drop the paint onto his canvases. This “dripping” method allowed him to make energetic works.”
This was Pollock’s answer to his chaos, action painting. The idea that the painting is the physical embodiment of an internal emotion. In his art, you can see very clearly his movement without necessarily seeing the direction. You can see how he moved about his large scale canvases, how the paint is laid out with a sense of a controlled chaos.
It became his release. To create an accidental aesthetic, purely random, entirely chaotic chorus of paints was vital to express his emotions, feelings, and life to the core. While critics of his technique talk about an apparent laziness and thoughtlessness to his art, one thing is clear: it’s the thought that counts.
And with Pollock, there’s more thought than meets the eye.
“…Pollock wanted to create art that was a visual representation of the motion and energy of his “inside world.” He was once asked why he did not paint pictures of objects people could identify. He answered that if you wanted to see a flower, you could go look at a real one. He said that what inerested him was not outside objects.”
