Essay about Action Painting

Jackson Pollock was not known for painting images, that's because he didn't use a brush He believed the brush would interfere with the dripping of the paint. Instead Jackson used a stick to pour paint onto the canvas. He would change the color, type of paint, and the thickness of the paint as the work progressed. Therefore, the painting would reflect the movements of his arm and body as he applied the paint. The activity of the painting would become part of the painting itself. That style of painting is called action painting. Jackson Pollock was the first "all-over" action painted just like Cernuschi stated on page 67 in his book Meaning and Significance, "He painted no image, just action." It looked like Pollock almost imitated a dance. Pollock dripped paint all over the canvas, but always had total control of where the splash of paint would be. That is how he got his nickname "Jack the

subject’s action. Many works of his time period were sculptures that were meant to be

In “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger, an English art critic, argues that images are important for the present-day by saying, “No other kind of relic or text from the past can offer such direct testimony about the world which surrounded other people at other times. In this respect images are more precise and richer literature” (10). John Berger allowed others to see the true meaning behind certain art pieces in “Ways of Seeing”. Images and art show what people experienced in the past allowing others to see for themselves rather than be told how an event occurred. There are two images that represent the above claim, Arnold Eagle and David Robbins’ photo of a little boy in New York City, and Dorothea Lange’s image of a migratory family from Texas; both were taken during the Great Depression.

Impressionism, in contrast, strove not to capture the toils of society in a moralistic setting like Realism did, but to evoke a general mood in the viewer. Painting was transformed from the idea of capturing a moment on canvas to creating a moment on canvas; painting was reduced to its own surface, “no longer transparent means but opaque ends” (Schneider 43). This was exemplified by Manet’s own ideas of painting not as “sight” but as “insight” into the human condition, driven by an artist’s intuition. Manet and the impressionists began painting en plein air, outdoors in the fresh air where they were closer to their subjects and captured the light of fleeting moments like sunrises and sunsets with quick brushstrokes intended to evoke general mood in the viewer based on the capture of light and tones in the painting, leading to the namesake “impression” left by the movement.

Edvard Munch is regarded as the pioneer of the Expressionist movement in modern painting. At an early stage Munch was recognised in Germany and central Europe as one of the creators of a new and different movement of art, that helped artists to express their feelings about all the social change that was happening around them.

(2005). In D. Bjelajac, American Art: A Cultural History (pp. 37-129). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, Inc.

| a celebration of the genius that enabled certain people to convey profound insights through art.

     Art, in each and every form that it comes in, shows us who we are. Our

His personal technique in gesture and action painting was applied as directly as possible. Pollock said that through this active process, he could "literally be in the painting". This describes the term coined "action painting". He also said, "When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of ‘get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making

Characteristics of Abstract Expressionist Paintings-optical buzz, all-over composition, Matisse sometimes painted images on large canvases, as did Picasso but paintings still retained an object like character- the viewer needed to stand back to see the complete composition. Abstract expressionist paintings, on the other hand, draw the spectator into them. The field of vision is thus larger than the field of vision of the spectator, who finds himself in a world beyond measurement (class handouts) "Portable Mural"

An Old Master’s painting provides for the viewer the possibility of being part of the space created as an illusion of depth by the painters, and this in itself characterizes how these painters found their own different way of challenging painting compared to what it previously used to be, by breaking the limits of painting defined by the medium. And on the contrary, Modernist paintings focusing on the flatness of the pictorial plane give the viewer the possibility to travel through the painting “only with the eye” (experienced by Manet and Impressionist painters). But, Greenberg insists that being self-critical doesn't suggest that leading painting into the extreme abstraction is the answer to Modernist painting (he gives the example of Kandinsky and Mondrian).

Abstract Expressionism is making its comeback within the art world. Coined as an artist movement in the 1940’s and 1950’s, at the New York School, American Abstract Expressionist began to express many ideas relevant to humanity and the world around human civilization. However, the subject matters, contributing to artists, were not meant to represent the ever-changing world around them. Rather, how the world around them affected the artist themselves. The works swayed by such worldly influences, become an important article within the artists’ pieces. Subjectively, looking inward to express the artist psyche, artists within the Abstract Expressionism movement became a part of their paintings. Making the paintings more of a representation

felt that the frame of mind of the artist when he creates a work of

"A picture can paint a thousand words." I found the one picture in my mind that does paint a thousand words and more. It was a couple of weeks ago when I saw this picture in the writing center; the writing center is part of State College. The beautiful colors caught my eye. I was so enchanted by the painting, I lost the group I was with. When I heard about the observation essay, where we have to write about a person or thing in the city that catches your eye. I knew right away that I wanted to write about the painting. I don’t know why, but I felt that the painting was describing the way I felt at that moment.

Acrylic paint is for losers, it could never match with the likes of oil paint. This was a common belief for any artist during the 20th century. Likewise, paint is a complex medium in the realm of visual artist; it always strikes an intricate dialogue within artistic domiciles. Who will survive? Oil paint, the noble, protagonist grease; or Acrylic paint, the economical, underdog wash. Consequently, most creatives argue between the importance of both mediums, but it genuinely relies on the preference of the artist; whatever she or he promotes in consideration of the pigment and drying time, expenses and brands, and “beginners versus professionals” stigmas.