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‘Jackson Pollock 51’: The short film about Jackson Pollock’s work that Jackson Pollock hated
01.30.2014
06:17 pm
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Pollock
 
I was always a little skeptical of Jackson Pollock’s work, especially when I learned that he and Abstract Expressionism were largely propped up by CIA slush funds in order to undermine Socialist Realism. (Not a bad Cold War tactic, really—“Here in America, our artistic principles are so liberated, you can just throw paint at a canvas and make a million dollars! CAPITALISM!”)

Upon seeing my first Pollock in the flesh, I was immediately a fan. For one, the enormous scale of the canvas shows the deliberateness in his drip technique, and what could have been little more than a mess instead shows composition and cohesion—there’s a reason painter Francis Bacon described Jackson Pollock as the “lacemaker.”

The photography of German photographer Hans Namuth is largely credited for Pollock’s rise to fame, and as the painter gained a higher profile, along with Abstract Expressionism in general, Namuth returned to capture Pollock’s “action painting” on video for the short documentary below. In a cinematically brilliant move, Namuth asked Pollock to create a painting on glass, so that he could film underneath, giving the viewer the experience of actually being the canvas. Lacking a lighting crew, they shot in the cold Long Island expanse of grassland outside of Pollock’s home.

Namuth also had to actually “direct” Pollock’s work, telling him when to stop and start. Ironically, what makes the film so interesting—Namuth’s direction, the picturesque outdoor setting, and the glass pane—actually compromised Pollock’s technique entirely, leaving him incredibly disillusioned by the experience.  Namuth’s attempt to create an art “personality” was executed at the expense of accurate documentation, and some say the artist’s health and well-being.

After coming in from the shoot, Pollock, a two-years-sober recovering alcoholic, poured himself a glass of bourbon, got into a heated argument with Namuth, each called one another a “phony,” and Pollock flipped a table. It’s said that after this incident, Pollock never stopped drinking. Afterwards, he dropped his “drip-style” entirely, and though his success continued to grow as his work changed, his alcoholism worsened, and he died in a car crash while driving drunk in 1956.
 

 
Via Open Culture

Posted by Amber Frost
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01.30.2014
06:17 pm
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Salvador Dali tries his hand at ‘Dynamic Painting’ on ‘I’ve Got A Secret’ 1963
09.08.2013
05:48 pm
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iladrodavlastvtac
 
Francis Bacon described Jackson Pollock as the “lacemaker,” as he thought Pollock’s Action Paintings looked like the intricacies of fine lacework. The description was flippant, but in it was also the recognition of Pollock’s talent in creating such fluid and spontaneous artwork.

In 1963, Salvador Dali tried his hand at Action Painting, or as he termed it “Dynamic Painting,” on the panel show I’ve Got A Secret. Unlike Pollock, who used oil, enamel and aluminum paint, Dali opted for shaving foam (yes, shaving foam) to create his mini-masterpiece. As one would imagine, the resultant (comic) mess bears little resemblance to the quality of the lacemaker’s work—though I doubt that was ever the intention.
 

 
A longer version with Dali judging the panelists’ paintings, after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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09.08.2013
05:48 pm
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