Jackson Pollock

Pioneer of ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM; b. Cody, Wyo. 1912-1956

He began to study painting in 1929 at the Art Students' League, New York, under the Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton. During the 1930s he worked in the manner of the Regionalists, being influenced also by the Mexican muralist painters (Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros) and by certain aspects of Surrealism.

From 1938 to 1942 he worked for the Federal Art Project. By the mid 1940s he was painting in a completely abstract manner, and the `drip and splash' style for which he is best known emerged with some abruptness in 1947. Instead of using the traditional easel he affixed his canvas to the floor or the wall and poured and dripped his paint from a can; instead of using brushes he manipulated it with `sticks, trowels or knives' (to use his own words), sometimes obtaining a heavy impasto by an admixture of `sand, broken glass or other foreign matter'. This manner of Action painting had in common with Surrealist theories of automatism that it was supposed by artists and critics alike to result in a direct expression or revelation of the unconscious moods of the artist.

Pollock's name is also associated with the introduction of the All-over style of painting which avoids any points of emphasis or identifiable parts within the whole canvas and therefore abandons the traditional idea of composition in terms of relations among parts. The design of his painting had no relation to the shape or size of the canvas -- indeed in the finished work the canvas was sometimes docked or trimmed to suit the image. All these characteristics were important for the new American painting which matured in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

During the 1950s Pollock continued to produce figurative or quasi-figurative black and white works and delicately modulated paintings in rich impasto as well as the paintings in the new all-over style. He was strongly supported by advanced critics, but was also subject to much abuse and sarcasm as the leader of a still little comprehended style; in 1956 Time magazine called him `Jack the Dripper'.

By the 1960s, however, he was generally recognized as the most important figure in the most important movement of this century in American painting, but a movement from which artists were already in reaction (Post-Painterly Abstraction). His unhappy personal life (he was an alcoholic) and his premature death in a car crash contributed to his legendary status. In 1944 Pollock married Lee Krasner (1911-84), who was an Abstract Expressionist painter of some distinction, although it was only after her husband's death that she received serious critical recognition.

Conrad Botha Generalism paintings

Generalism in Art

Manifesto for Generalism

1. Generalism, is art, for the sake of art.

2. All art is Generalism, unless it is narrower defined in another art movement.

3. Whenever art cannot be explained, or defined by the artist or by somebody else, it will be regarded as Generalism.

4. Therefore Generalism unites all art.

5. The onus, therefore rest on the creator, or observer, to explain, or to prove that a particular piece of art should not be regarded as Generalism.

6. Generalism comes down to the fact, that even if an artist has nothing to say, he/she must say it in order to prevent their work to be classified as Generalism.

Abstract Expressionism

What is Abstract Expressionism?

This is a style of painting that combines abstract form and expressionist emotional value. It started in the mid 1940’s in New York but its influence comes much earlier from Surrealism and Cubism. It is often considered America’s most important contribution to Modernism.

This was a post-World War II movement out of New York City. The movement is not solely characterized on the fact that all artists associated were abstract or expressionist. Rather, the movement had a number of styles. It can be said that it is an approach that involves complete freedom from all traditional aesthetic and social values and favors spontaneous, free personal expression.

Jackson Pollack - Stenographic

There are three general approaches that can be distinguished within the movement. The first of which is made famous by Jackson Pollock, one of the most well-known of this movement. His work was large in scale, loud in color, and free-flowing. He is most closely linked with what is known as action painting. No drop of paint is an accident and loose, rapid sweeping brushstrokes make this style reminiscent of the Surrealists.

Abstract impressionism is another approach. Unlike action painting, works are less spontaneous. They are more manipulated towards a preconceived notion of an end result. Philip Guston is the most notable of this style.

The third approach uses well-defined abstract images or large scales of pure color. Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, and James Brooks are among the artists of this style of paint.

Among the other well-known artists associated with abstract expressionism are:

• Lee Krasner (Pollock’s wife) 1908-1984
• Willem de Kooning 1904-1997
• Mark Rothko 1903-1970
• Adolph Gottlieb 1903-1974
• Franz Kline 1910-1962
• Philip Guston 1913-1980
• Robert Motherwell 1915-1991
• Arshile Gorky 1904-1948
• Adolf Gottlieb 1903-1974
• Barnett Newman 1905- 1970