Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

The Abstract Expressionist movement developed along two
lines—gestural abstraction and chromatic abstraction.The gestural
abstractionists relied on the expressiveness of energetically applied
pigment. In contrast, the chromatic abstractionists focused on
color’s emotional resonance.

JACKSON POLLOCK The artist whose work best exemplifies
gestural abstraction is Jackson Pollock(1912–1956), who devel-
oped his signature style in the mid-1940s. By 1950, Pollock had re-
fined his technique and was producing large-scale abstract paintings
such as Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist;FIG. 36-5). These works
consist of rhythmic drips, splatters, and dribbles of paint. The mural-
sized fields of energetic skeins of pigment envelop viewers, drawing
them into a lacy spider web. Using sticks or brushes, Pollock flung,
poured, and dripped paint (not only traditional oil paints but alu-
minum paints and household enamels as well) onto a section of can-
vas he simply unrolled across his studio floor (FIG. 36-6). This work-
ing method earned Pollock the derisive nickname “Jack the Dripper.”

Responding to the image as it developed, he created art that was both

spontaneous and choreographed. Pollock’s painting technique high-

lights a particularly avant-garde aspect of gestural abstraction—its

emphasis on the creative process. Indeed, Pollock literally immersed

himself in the painting during its creation.

Art historians have linked Pollock’s ideas about improvisation

in the creative process to his interest in what psychiatrist Carl Jung

called the collective unconscious. The improvisational nature of Pol-

lock’s work and his reliance on the subconscious also have parallels

in the “psychic automatism” of Surrealism and the work of Vassily

Kandinsky (FIG. 35-7), whom critics described as an “abstract ex-

pressionist” as early as 1919. In addition to Pollock’s unique working

methods and the expansive scale of his canvases, the lack of a well-

defined compositional focus in his paintings significantly departed

from conventional easel painting (see “Jackson Pollock on Easel and

Mural Painting,” above). A towering figure in 20th-century art, Pol-

lock tragically died in a car accident at age 44, cutting short the de-

velopment of his innovative artistic vision.

Painting and Sculpture, 1945 to 1970 973

I

n two statements made in 1947,
one as part of his application for a
Guggenheim Fellowship and one in a
published essay, Jackson Pollock ex-
plained the motivations for his new
kind of “action painting” and de-
scribed the manner in which he ap-
plied pigment to canvas (FIG. 36-6).

I intend to paint large movable

pictures which will function be-

tween the easel and mural....

I believe the easel picture to be

a dying form, and the tendency

of modern feeling is towards the

wall picture or mural.*

My painting does not come from the easel. I hardly ever stretch my

canvas before painting. 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 a part of the painting,

since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and

literally be inthe painting. This is akin to the method of the Indian

sand painters of the West [see Chapter 32, page 861]. I continue to

get further away from the usual painter’s tools such as easel, palette,

brushes, etc. I prefer sticks, trowels, knives and dripping fluid paint

or a heavy impasto with sand, broken glass and other foreign matter

added. When I am inmy painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing.

... [T]he painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through....
The source of my painting is the unconscious.†

• Quoted in Francis V. O’Connor,Jackson Pollock(New York: Museum of Modern
  Art, 1967), 39.
  †Ibid., 39–40.

Jackson Pollock on Easel

and Mural Painting

ARTISTS ON ART

36-6Hans Namuth,

Jackson Pollock painting

in his studio in Springs,

Long Island, New York, 1950.

Center for Creative Photog-

raphy, University of Arizona,

Tucson.

“Gestural abstraction” nicely

describes Pollock’s working

technique. Using sticks or

brushes, he flung, poured,

and dripped paint onto a

section of canvas he simply

unrolled across his studio

floor.