This one’s a beauty. The video is more about the destructive impact art history has had on art than it is about Pollock, but even Pollock haters should appreciate the aesthetics of his work as I’ve showcased it. As an artist, when I make these videos, I can’t help getting into the visual experience of watching them. I love a good detail of a painting or a dramatic photo of an artist, and I scoured the web looking for the best examples. Then I get creative with overlapping and juxtaposing images. There are hours of experimenting on the fly that went into this, and my favorite parts may be things most people won’t consciously notice at all.
If you want to watch the video in YouTube try this link: https://youtu.be/fmv4te_MFYo
The video addresses the notion that Pollock made a “radical breakthrough” that “changed the course of art history”. While this kind of notion is used to prop up his art, it isn’t necessary, and it has a very destructive element to it. For example, it ultimately throws Pollock’s paintings under the bus because it sidelines his art for the next wave of radical breakthroughs that ostensibly render his art backwards and irrelevant. Meanwhile, art has become more and more extreme in its desperate attempt to shock and turn art history on its head. The results are indistinguishable from parody, and I include some stellar examples in the video.
I conclude that there is no linear history of art in which one style or approach replaces another. That turns out to have been a fabrication projected on art and even enforced on art. A lamentable consequence of this is that there was no equivalent in visual art of the enormous flowering of pop music in the late 60’s and early 70’s. On a personal note, when I was in art school, I couldn’t make paintings and be taken seriously because my instructors believed conceptual art had replaced painting. This imposition of a false history upon art is the target of my video.
For the Pollock haters out there, many of whom are themselves painters, just imagine you had access to a fresh batch of all his tools, paints, and studio. Could you do something interesting with it? Could you do something more interesting or aesthetically appealing than the average Joe? If your answer is yes, consciously or subconsciously, then you realize there’s something to it. In fact, I loved abstract expressionism as soon as I discovered it when I was 18. Unlike many art movements, it is NOT anti-aesthetic. Rather, the artists are trying to create sublime aesthetic experiences. By me, there’s a lot worse you can do artistically than that.
Hope you’ll give the video a try.
~ Ends
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Art & Crit by Eric Wayne 
Thanks for the work put on this video, started watching it, will finish it later, very informative, not quite my art style but I do appreciate his approach to art, always nice to discover or more precisely learn more about an artist’s work and try to go over my ‘presumptions’ about their work. I like too the technique behind the making of your video.
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Thanks for checking it out. It gets better as you go IMO.
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Thanks for sharing this idea. Anita
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J’aime Jackson Pollock, merci pour votre chronique
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Sounds like the Big Progressive Narrative of History applied to art.
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Yeah. Pretty much. Some of the same people behind it too, I’d imagine.
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I never realized how much I love and respect art until after I learned to just ignore the postmodernism of the last five decades or so. As a fiction writer who has no painting ability whatsoever, thanks for the post!
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You nailed it. Once we weed out the stuff that’s being crammed down our throats for ulterior motives there’s lots of great art out there. I recently discovered Renaissance artists I didn’t know about.
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I do admire your dedication to your work, the sharing of such vast knowledge about Art. I always wanted a formal Art education, but over my lifetime have come to realize my freedom of expression results from my lack of the same! I’m so glad to read your various opinions and enjoy your research. And I enjoy your extensive body of work you share, of your own! Thanks Eric!
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I watched the entire video (even the repulsive parts). I’m sure Jackson Pollock would have been incensed by many of these “artists”; regardless, I am incensed for him. It is amazing to me how idiotic people can become when they don’t understand/like/agree with something. These antics were ridiculous and offensive and, most importantly, meaningless.
Of course, no one has to like anything, including Jackson Pollock’s art. But ridicule of this sort demonstrates artistic and intellectual shortcomings in the ridiculers, not in Pollock.
I’ve always liked Pollock (admittedly, I’ve always been more drawn to abstract art than representational). I’ve never even gotten to see one of his pieces in person, only on computers and in books, but I completely get where he was coming from. It seems to me he approached painting for the simple joy and curiosity of seeing how the paint would behave, what textures would emerge, how the colors played over and under each other, what patterns would appear, and how he could orchestrate it all with his movements. To me, that IS artistry: exploration, openness, trust, acceptance.
The video is outstanding and I truly appreciate all the information. Maybe it will make some people take a second look at their own biases and stuck-up opinions about what “qualifies” as art and get over themselves.
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I really enjoyed your description of where you think Pollock was coming from, whether it’s true or not.
“It seems to me he approached painting for the simple joy and curiosity of seeing how the paint would behave, what textures would emerge, how the colors played over and under each other, what patterns would appear, and how he could orchestrate it all with his movements.”
When I was in high school, before I ever heard of abstract art, I once go carried away in my cartooning class. We had poster paints in squeeze bottles, and I started squeezing paint on paper, and I found if I propelled the paint under the paint already pooling on the paper, it would bubble up and create bright, contrasting colors. I was fully into it. And then another student came by, saw what I was doing, got very angry and destroyed it.
Some people just don’t like abstract or non-representational art, which is kinda’ weird to me, because to me it’s a lot like instrumental music. It can be quite lyrical and beautiful, have lots of energy, remind me of locations or feelings, etc. But for others, it really pisses them off, I guess.
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Yes, and I will never understand people’s aversion to abstract art. I’m glad you mentioned music because it makes me think of people who can’t stand instrumental music, no words. I think some people are just bothered by not being told what the point is: this is a forest, this is a girl, this is a love story, etc. Of course, EVERYONE has the right to the art (and music) that they love for their own reasons. I just don’t see what’s wrong with NOT giving the lyrics, NOT painting a recognizable scene. What is wrong with creating from the inside and letting people apply their own interpretations to it, feeling it according to something within themselves instead of what’s dictated?
Personally, I have a greater appreciation for abstract art. I’m bored with pictures of things, no matter how awesomely created. This might anger some but, in my experience, lovers/creators of representational art seem to have a greater disdain for lovers/creators of abstract art than the other way around. I just will never understand the need to tell others what is “valid” to create or to enjoy.
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Yeah. And I have lots of melodies stuck in my head that I really like, and there’s no words or images attached to them. A melody is a thought, an idea, and it has content and substance.
Agreed. A lot of people want to be told explicitly what the answer is. It’s not about an answer. And it’s not about the question, either, because that implies an answer finishes it. It’s about enjoying the note while it lasts.
Have a good one.
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