Pollock, Green Poles, canvas, 20th century
Seemingly chaotic paintings of Jackson Pollock have been considered easy to replicate, if not to forge. Green Poles, assumed as one of his last paintings in the mid 1950’s, surfaced for sale and is under scrutiny for authentication. It is a medium size painting, 109 cm by 86 cm.
Fig.1. Jackson Pollock, Number 7, 1952. Enamel and oil on canvas, 134.9 x 101.6 cm. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A number of paints used for this work are identical to what Pollock was known to use. However, a thinner layer of deep green used underneath viscous splashes of black is unidentified both for its source and from the artists’ other works. A smudged fingerprint in the same color appears on the
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4. Jackson Pollock, Blue poles [Number 11, 1952], 1952. Enamel and aluminium Paint with glass on canvas, 212.1 x 488.9 cm. Canbarra, National Gallery of Australia.
While the work does not satisfy an expert’s eyes, the techniques do correspond with the change of Pollock’s style in early 1950’s. Pollock’s particular usage and control of various tools established an idiosyncratic style of his. In fact, there is a computer program that identifies Pollock’s work to an accuracy level of 93%, which did render Green Poles authentic. Meanwhile, other scientific methods would not be a reliable indicator to authenticate a Pollock.
Moreover, the provenance of the work is undesignated, as the seller remains anonymous and declined to disclose the origin of the work. However, this piece may be the one that Pollock gifted his mistress Ruth Kligman on B. H. Friedman’s thirtieth birthday. Additionally, the title of the work is what left some scholars unsure of its authenticity.
For its apparent easiness to imitate, Pollock is not short of forgeries. Clearly, some academics are skeptical due to Green Poles’ unverified source of paints, uncommon composition, unidentified provenance, and unusual title. Therefore, despite a number of reliable evidences, the authenticity of this painting is inconclusive, likely to be a
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Stulik, ‘An Integrated Approach for the Study of Painting Techniques’ in Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 6-11.
Friedman, 1973: Stanley P. Friedman, ‘Loopholes In “Blue Poles”’, New York Magazine, 6, no. 44, p.48.
Herczyriski, et al., 2011: Andrzej Herczyriski, Claude Cernuschi and L. Mahadevan, ‘Painting with drops, jets, and sheets’, Physics Today, 64, 2011, pp. 31-36.
Hochfield: Sylvia Hochfield, ‘The Blue Print’, ARTnews, 2008. [24 Aug, 2015], http://www.artnews.com/2008/06/01/the-blue-print/.
Kaprow, 1958: Allan Kaprow, ‘The Legacy of Jackson Pollock’ in Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993, pp. 1-9.
Karmel, 1999: Pepe Karmel, ‘Jackson Pollock. Interview with William Wright’ in Jackson Pollock: Interviews, Articles, and Reviews, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1999, pp. 20-23.
Naifeh & Smith, 1989: Steven Naifeh & Gregory White Smith, ‘Escape Velocity’ in Jackson Pollock: An American Saga, New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1989, pp.774-793.
New York, 1969: Jackson Pollock: Black and White, exh. cat., New York, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York: Marlborough-Gerson Gallery,
Vincent van Gogh- Starry Night, 1889, Post impressionism, Oil on canvas, 29 x 36 ¼ in, Museum of Modern Art, NYC
Art history: a useless pondering over sketches that have little significance to life, at least this is the notion held by many. Delving into art history is a slippery slope that requires more than any one person knows. James F. Cooper and Alan Wallach explore the considerations art historians go through to decipher the relevancy of artworks. However, James F. Cooper’s arguments retro and one-track minded, while Alan Wallach’s arguments on which artworks to pick apart, the methods to attack them, and the reasons people spend so long analyzing a piece of paper are far more relevant to today’s emerging standards.
Number 1A is an early realization of Pollock’s distinctive approach to dripping paint directly onto the canvas. This technique quickly became a statement on the aesthetic and psychological power of large-scale abstract painting. At five feet and eight inches by eight feet and 8 inches it is a massive piece that’s
Helen Frankenthaler was a huge part of the development of Color Field Painting, she was influenced by Abstract Expressionist painting techniques such as Pollocks drip painting, she once said in an interview with Henry Geldzahler in 1965 ‘…I looked at and was influenced by both Pollock and de Kooning and eventually felt there were more possibilities for me out of the Pollock vocabulary. De Kooning made enclosed linear shapes and ‘applied’ the brush. Pollock used shoulder and ropes and ignored the edges and corners. I felt I could stretch more in the Pollock framework… you could become a de Kooning disciple or satellite or mirror, but you could depart from Pollock’ Frankenthaler developed her own approach to the drip painting style and took Pollocks method to new levels, ‘it wasn’t the drama of Pollocks drips and flung paint that attracted
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
Aggressive and harsh, raw in colour, the texture thick and heavy as if it had been relentlessly worked and re-worked over again and again. Pictures don't have the delicacy of Pollock's. Shapes are vaguely suggestive , pressed together, brush strokes are dense
Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity was written by Griselda Pollock in 1988, and later published in The Expanding Disclosure in 1992. Griselda Pollock is an art historian, and writes this article for fellow art historians. This is an article written to show the different approaches to femininity in the late 19th century, mainly dealing with the field of art. This article shows how during this time period there were women artists, but due to the gendered ruled ideas attached to art history, these women are largely ignored by art historians. Pollock thought that these women artists are primarily overlooked due to the fact that they are judged by the same standards that are affixed to the work of their male counterparts. But she argues
It was after he moved to Long Island that he discovered what he was to be truly famous for, his “drip paintings.” According to the Smithsonian Museum of Art, Pollock began working on the ground, on a not stretched canvas, throwing and dripping raw materials such as sand, tar, and paint on the canvas (2). This was of painting without subject matter is known as “action painting” (2). Indicated by one source, he needed to view his painting from all angles and step around it (National Gallery of Art 2). This is part of the technique and action painter uses to “get into his or her painting.” He had developed the ability to become completely part of his painting (2). In the film Pollock, when Krasner discovers Pollock’s new way of painting she says, “You’ve done it Pollock. You’ve cracked it open.” This is exactly what Jackson did, he “cracked open” the art world, exposing new skin and breaking all the traditions. Rugoff indicates that Pollock, with strong influence, had changed painting from a traditional compositional technique to something else, making his paintings look more as sculptures (442). Along with the finished product, the method Pollock used to paint was “out-of-the-ordinary.” Pollock painted physically, in almost a performance art technique (National Gallery of Art 2). His movements could not be repeated, however, the artwork always came out how the artist wanted it to (2). Pollock says himself
Jackson Pollock created the painting White Light with the use of oil, enamel and aluminum paint on a 48 ¼ x 38 ¼” (122.4 x 96.9 cm) canvas in the year 1954, using a technique known as drip painting. It is said to be his last completed work before his untimely death in 1956. To understand White Light one must delve into the world of the Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock.
Taking following extreme cases of abstraction, when speaking of Pollock’s work such as his ”Autumn Rhythm” (1950), we realize how the visual formed is fully based on science and gravity that permits the dripping and pouring of the paint on the horizontal canvas. But, by walking around/on the canvas we can argue Greenberg’s analysis and suppose that the painter possibly connects with it, he gets drowned in the act and merges inside the painting while mechanically pouring paint on the canvas. This means that even though the painter tries to focus on the flatness of the painting rather than the content and is physically detached from the canvas, this focus cannot erase an emotional
The artwork to the right is Convergence by Jackson Pollock created in 1952. Convergence is a very peculiar artwork consisting of oil paint. The painting consists of various shades of a certain color splattered onto a canvas. The way the medium is used on the canvas creates the different textures and difference in the way the paint falls upon the canvas very creative. The white strokes create an emphasis on the rest of the colors, which makes the white also stand out.
(Millhouse, 2011) In the 1980’s Pollock’s Feminism “critiqued the essential myths of individualism, the artist, and the social constructions of femininity and masculinity that define bourgeois culture”. While the 70’s feminism movement aim was to stand next to the existing masculine dominated culture. “Feminism's encounter with the canon has been complexed and many-leveled: political ,ideology,mythological,methodological and psycho-symbolic” (Pollock, 1999). The 1970’s movement was followed by the immediate task which was “the need to rectify the gaps in historical knowledge created by the consistent omission of women of all cultures from the history of art” (Pollock, 1999). The only art that was put on display was significantly male dominated work, if you wanted to see work created by women, you would have to view them “in a basement or storeroom of a national gallery” (Pollock, 1999). Female artists are only known in their own category of female artists while male artists don’t require a separate category . Art that is created by females have been historically dismissed from the art historical canon as craft, as opposed to fine art. The evident of
In 1930s, the art scene in America was greatly dominated by the practicality and regionalism. The film on Jackson Pollock by Ed Harris presents a powerful picture of Jackson Pollock. The film has performed in an outstanding manner by evoking the true
The dominant figure that steered the course of the Abstract Expressionist movement was the infamous painter Jackson Pollock. He was born Paul Jackson Pollock in Cody, Wyoming on January 28, 1912. He was the fifth and youngest son and grew up in Arizona and California after his family left him when he was a little over one year old. Pollock's artistic journey began at the Manual Arts School in Los Angeles, California where he joined two of his brothers. From there, he went on to New York to attend the Art Students' League after being convinced by one of his brothers whom also attended the school.
Jackson Pollock was an American artist who was well known for drip painting. He struggled with alcoholism for most his life and he would take his alcohol-induced inspiration and splatter it onto canvas. No. 5, 1948 was a splatter painting composed of grey, brown, white, and yellow gloss enamels. Most people consider it to be a chaotic birds nest, or a fury of emotions. However, it is whatever your eyes choose to see it as.