Jackson Pollock Would Be 100 Today

***

Today, of all days, you can give yourself permission to go out to the studio and make a huge mess, step in it, and basically cut loose!


Jackson Pollock was born 100 years ago today in Cody, Wyoming, to Presbyterian Irish and Scotch-Irish farmers.  He changed the world.


Telegraph Article on the centenary of Pollock's birth.


What follows is my research post on Jackson Pollock, which has been beviraled by Google and utilized by thousands of university students as a starting point for their studies.

The Colorist

About The Colorist blog.

Galaxy, 1947Jackson Pollock

This post was originally published in 2007. It gets enough attention that I brought it up to date.

See also The Jackson Pollock Researcher for the comprehensive and current links on Jackson Pollock.

Originality was the hallmark of Jackson Pollock's art. He found a way to both connect with, and yet break free of whatever else had been happening with art. It's a little hard to appreciate the originality of Pollock from our high horse of retrospection. I liken it to some of my experiences with rock climbing. Sure, a particular rock climb will have a difficulty rating and a status as severe or hard, but when you go to climb it, you feel that it isn't as hard as described. Well, put yourself in the sticky shoes of the very first ascensionist. What was the experience like for him?

So, imagine the first "pure" abstraction. How does one completely eliminate the subject from a painting? The Abstract Expressionists often likened abstract painting to getting "in touch" with your inner child, because children draw and paint with freedom and innocence. I argued with that comparison until I had my own children picking up pencils and crayons. Now, I completely believe in the childlike aspects of abstract visual expression. Now, I just have to work out my objections to the "primitive man" comparisons to painting abstraction.

My own experience with abstraction took place when I took a workshop from Diane Townsend, who happens to be a great abstractionist with ties to New York and my hero Wolf Kahn.

How do you begin painting abstractly? Townsend unlocked that door for me, and before noon on the first day I was having a great time painting "nothing". I hope to continue my exploration of abstraction in the near future. It actually can be one of the hardest styles to paint in and make anything really good. My abstracts can be seen here and here.

Let's follow some link paths for Jackson Pollock.




Steven Naifeh and Greg Smith have written a Pulitzer prize winning biography titled: Jackson Pollock, An American Saga. I have some serious misgivings about it's historicity, but suffice it to say that it seems to be the "go to" book now for looking at his life. Ed Harris brings it to our attention in his comments about his movie about the keen artist.

Harris also thinks Pollock may have been manic-depressive. Of course, my first inclination would be to look up the paperwork on his 4-F status, just in case that might reveal something about a diagnosis of this or something similar. I guess he also saw therapists, and the records from that probably reveal something, too. Shades of van Gogh.

Pollock's Studio Floor

Don't miss the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton (Long Island). This small property with rustic facilities was purchased by Pollock and Krasner with help from Peggy Guggenheim, who was Pollock's "super-patron". It was here that Pollock began his drip paintings, and you may visit this museum and walk on the floor where his drips are preserved. Could these be considered accidents?

I recommend the Pollock bio written by the director of the P-K House, Helen Harrison.

There is a Pollock-Krasner Foundation, which I think is a very classy move by the late Lee Krasner, who was left as a widow by her drunken and cheating genius-artist husband. Trying to figure out what made Krasner's relationship with Pollock tick is an exercise in head-trips that some may enjoy. We'll look at the wonderful Krasner a little later in our Abstract Expressionist study this month.

The National Gallery of Art in DC has a good site about the old boy. A quick look at his process is seen in this GIF - Video. Here's a Quicktime featurette of a Hans Namuth film of the Camel-smoking curmudgeon at his task of working a horizontal canvas.

I have to limit the scope of JP references found at the Museum of Modern Art, since they are numerous. Man, this stuff is knee-deep. How does one have an "itinerant childhood"? Uh, never mind the MoMA for now...

Of course, my favorite site for Jackson Pollock is the fun and interactive "Create Your Own" Jackson Pollock by Milos Manetas. It's an ingenious flash page where you drip "paint" on your CRT screen. Of course, you don't control the color - those come as accidents. My only advice is cut loose, don't stay inside the frame, and don't stop too soon!

Links referenced above:
http://www.amazon.com/Jackson-Pollock-American-Steven-Naifeh/dp/0913391190
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/pkhouse.nsf
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/pkhouse.nsf/pages/pollock
http://www.pkf.org/
http://www.nga.gov/feature/pollock/index.htm
http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

Norman Rockwell, Jackson Pollock and Ideas

Yellow Trees, Blue Forest
9" x 7"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

This post was originally published in 2008.


It was a great joy to receive the following question from a second grade teacher located in Mexico:

Hi. I would like to know what do you think about the idea of Rockwell of painting Pollock’s in his.


I am teaching 2nd graders about Pollock and I have found it more complex that just dripping!

My reply:

Thank you for the question.


Maybe you saw my post about an image named The Connoisseur that Norman Rockwell did of the well heeled museum patron in front of a Jackson Pollock painting. 

I have a special affinity for NR, as I studied art via the Norman Rockwell Famous Artist's Course for Talented Young People when I was not much older than your second graders. He deserves the renewed interest that the art public is giving him, in my opinion.


On your question. What artist doesn't want to be liked for their artwork? Certainly there was a great deal of "artistic courage" that both of these famous artists exhibited.


NR was big enough in his heart to portray the wholly different painting style of the emerging super artist Jackson Pollock, and at the same time doing this with irony and humor. That was his trademark.


I don't see him passing any negative judgment in his painting, and as far as the art side of it is concerned, the man stands in the middle bottom of the painting, almost like a tree trunk whose canopy is the abstract painting. A wonderful idea, and difficult to pull off. Not at all following strict compositional rules. His talent in composing a painting is on show, here. That's irony, too!


JP had obvious "artistic courage" by not using regular oil paint or regular brushes or even regular primed canvases. He didn't use the easel, either. He was changing everything about painting, or as many things as he could think of to do.


As a contemporary artist, I have been given permission by JP to do more kinds of things to express my art than before he "broke" all those art rules. I choose to repeat my compositions over and over again, to make the point that the colors are the "meaning", not the trees. I like to get rid of "depth", so hammered into my brain by the great Norman Rockwell school. That reminds me (and maybe you, the viewer) that after all, you are looking at a painting about: color.


Kindly,

Casey Klahn

Repost Research

The Colorist

Number 31, 1950
at the MoNA
Jackson Pollock

Lavender Mist, 1954
Jackson Pollock

Here are a selection of Jackson Pollock links.


Jackson Pollock:

• New York Times On Topic for Jackson Pollock-Link. Best to read the NYT if you value critics that use words like "inimitability". Otherwise, follow their Jackson Pollock Navigator until you find an article that makes some sense.
• My dated post on the topic of Jackson Pollock links.
• Squidoo Lens on Pollock.
• MoMA Collection of Pollocks. Link. From the NYT list, but I'll put it here as an important collection.
• The Art News Blog lists these links for Pollock.
• The Pollock-Krasner House.
• Pollocksthebollocks is a blog with a base in Abstract Expressionism.
• The movie about Jackson Pollock has certainly pushed forward his star in the public conscience. My review is found here.
• There is an interesting video legacy of the drip painter which may do much for his posterity as we go further into this digital age. Hans Namuth and Paul Falkenberg.
• Jackson Pollock Unauthorized. Looks like bootleg prints, but some good info, too.
  

You can't get through Pollock without visiting Abstract Expressionism.

• Here are my posts on the topic.
• I recommend the Wikipedia post on the topic.
• This book, Taschen's Abstract Expressionism, by Barbara Hess, is a good pictorial analysis, by artist, of the great American movement.
• A dated Wordpress blog with some nice AE references.

And the inimitable Clement Greenberg requires some study if you want to cover JP correctly:

• Wikipedia.
• Art Czar: The Rise and Fall of Clement Greenberg, Marquis. Did CB invent Modern Art? Read this new bio for extra, extra credit.
  
• I see my local Portland Art Museum has the significant collection of Clement Greenberg's catalogs and private art collection. Wow.
• Official CG site.

Eight Hundred and Ninety-Two, and Please Don't Hate Me

Eight Hundred and Ninety-Two. I can barely write that number and get it right. That represents the number of hits The Colorist received on Thursday. Which is a few more - well, quite a few more - than it is used to getting. The stats have been exploding the past month and a half, but that represents something like a low-yield nuclear weaponized bump.

Many of you are like, "ho hum, I get 900 hits on my blog before breakfast." But, for my humble blab place, that is a happy anomaly. For those of you who walk with mortals and aren't used to such high-handed blog stats, pull up a chair and see how The Colorist got here. It is an amazing story of foibles, foul - ups and flouting full-force the power of the webtunnel.

As the author of The Colorist, I try my hardest to balance that razor's edge between bald self promotion, and universally interesting art content. No blogger that wants to be read by the racing public throng should focus on themselves too much. Does that even need explaining? To that end, I work at writing a few art essays, and I try to promote the best that artist blogs have to offer. Then, I sneak in the bald self-promotion, and likely way too much of that. When I begin to gag on narcissism, I revert back to art content. I hope it all works out in the end, and I have had readers introduce themselves and explain that they appreciate the balance. All I can do is try.

The reason for The Bump of the past month will make my artist blogger friends chuckle, or turn green with envy, or throw a brick through their computer. I hope for the first response. This post was receiving hits like a lab rat on nicotene, and I had to find out why. When I followed the trail left by StatCounter, I found a Google redirect page. As near as I can tell, Google, which never makes mistakes, had randomly selected my Jackson Pollock post as a holding place for confused search devices. Hallelujah! I get hits like Babe Ruth on steroids.

Before you throw that brick, I will plead some of my thoughts on this. On the one hand, that post about the famous artist is not too badly written. I sincerely feel, at the bottom of my heart, that it has near-zero original content. But, as a reference tool, it has something going on. And, as time progressed, my search rank for that post and the image of Galaxy, by JP, began to rank as number one at Google. That is reality, as we count it in computer land. Hello, manna from cyberspace!

I quickly updated it to represent my current format for posts, and added the Pollock dripping paint vid from You Tube. And (you'd do this too, I hope) then I added a couple of big, fat links back to this blog at the top of the post.

All those hits, and a dollar, will now buy me a cup of coffee downtown. Don't hate me, outright, for my good luck, friend. Just hope that Google throws you a bone now and then.

Casey Klahn

abacus photo by chicobangs/photobucket.

Pollock Links & References - Updated

The Colorist
About The Colorist blog.

Galaxy, 1947
Jackson Pollock

This post was originally published in 2007. It gets enough attention that I brought it up to date.

See also The Jackson Pollock Researcher for the comprehensive and current links on Jackson Pollock.

Originality was the hallmark of Jackson Pollock's art. He found a way to both connect with, and yet break free of whatever else had been happening with art. It's a little hard to appreciate the originality of Pollock from our high horse of retrospection. I liken it to some of my experiences with rock climbing. Sure, a particular rock climb will have a difficulty rating and a status as severe or hard, but when you go to climb it, you feel that it isn't as hard as described. Well, put yourself in the sticky shoes of the very first ascensionist. What was the experience like for him?

So, imagine the first "pure" abstraction. How does one completely eliminate the subject from a painting? The Abstract Expressionists often likened abstract painting to getting "in touch" with your inner child, because children draw and paint with freedom and innocence. I argued with that comparison until I had my own children picking up pencils and crayons. Now, I completely believe in the childlike aspects of abstract visual expression. Now, I just have to work out my objections to the "primitive man" comparisons to painting abstraction.

My own experience with abstraction took place when I took a workshop from Diane Townsend, who happens to be a great abstractionist with ties to New York and my hero Wolf Kahn.

How do you begin painting abstractly? Townsend unlocked that door for me, and before noon on the first day I was having a great time painting "nothing". I hope to continue my exploration of abstraction in the near future. It actually can be one of the hardest styles to paint in and make anything really good. My abstracts can be seen here and here.

Let's follow some link paths for Jackson Pollock.




Steven Naifeh and Greg Smith have written a Pulitzer prize winning biography titled: Jackson Pollock, An American Saga. I have some serious misgivings about it's historicity, but suffice it to say that it seems to be the "go to" book now for looking at his life. Ed Harris brings it to our attention in his comments about his movie about the keen artist.

Harris also thinks Pollock may have been manic-depressive. Of course, my first inclination would be to look up the paperwork on his 4-F status, just in case that might reveal something about a diagnosis of this or something similar. I guess he also saw therapists, and the records from that probably reveal something, too. Shades of van Gogh.

Pollock's Studio Floor

Don't miss the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton (Long Island). This small property with rustic facilities was purchased by Pollock and Krasner with help from Peggy Guggenheim, who was Pollock's "super-patron". It was here that Pollock began his drip paintings, and you may visit this museum and walk on the floor where his drips are preserved. Could these be considered accidents?

I recommend the Pollock bio written by the director of the P-K House, Helen Harrison.

There is a Pollock-Krasner Foundation, which I think is a very classy move by the late Lee Krasner, who was left as a widow by her drunken and cheating genius-artist husband. Trying to figure out what made Krasner's relationship with Pollock tick is an exercise in head-trips that some may enjoy. We'll look at the wonderful Krasner a little later in our Abstract Expressionist study this month.

The National Gallery of Art in DC has a good site about the old boy. A quick look at his process is seen in this GIF - Video. Here's a Quicktime featurette of a Hans Namuth film of the Camel-smoking curmudgeon at his task of working a horizontal canvas.

I have to limit the scope of JP references found at the Museum of Modern Art, since they are numerous. Man, this stuff is knee-deep. How does one have an "itinerant childhood"? Uh, never mind the MoMA for now...

Of course, my favorite site for Jackson Pollock is the fun and interactive "Create Your Own" Jackson Pollock by Milos Manetas. It's an ingenious flash page where you drip "paint" on your CRT screen. Of course, you don't control the color - those come as accidents. My only advice is cut loose, don't stay inside the frame, and don't stop too soon!

Links referenced above:
http://www.amazon.com/Jackson-Pollock-American-Steven-Naifeh/dp/0913391190
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/pkhouse.nsf
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/pkhouse.nsf/pages/pollock
http://www.pkf.org/
http://www.nga.gov/feature/pollock/index.htm
http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

Art Education

Yellow Trees, Blue Forest
9" x 7"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

It was a great joy to receive the following question from a second grade teacher located in Mexico:

Hi. I would like to know what do you think about the idea of Rockwell of painting Pollock’s in his.

I am teaching 2nd graders about Pollock and I have found it more complex that just dripping!

My reply:

Thank you for the question.

Maybe you saw my post about an image named The Connoisseur that Norman Rockwell did of the well heeled museum patron in front of a Jackson Pollock painting.

I have a special affinity for NR, as I studied art via the Norman Rockwell Famous Artist's Course for Talented Young People when I was not much older than your second graders. He deserves the renewed interest that the art public is giving him, in my opinion.

On your question. What artist doesn't want to be liked for their artwork? Certainly there was a great deal of "artistic courage" that both of these famous artists exhibited.

NR was big enough in his heart to portray the wholly different painting style of the emerging super artist Jackson Pollock, and at the same time doing this with irony and humor. That was his trademark.

I don't see him passing any negative judgment in his painting, and as far as the art side of it is concerned, the man stands in the middle bottom of the painting, almost like a tree trunk whose canopy is the abstract painting. A wonderful idea, and difficult to pull off. Not at all following strict compositional rules. His talent in composing a painting is on show, here. That's irony, too!

JP had obvious "artistic courage" by not using regular oil paint or regular brushes or even regular primed canvases. He didn't use the easel, either. He was changing everything about painting, or as many things as he could think of to do.

As a contemporary artist, I have been given permission by JP to do more kinds of things to express my art than before he "broke" all those art rules. I choose to repeat my compositions over and over again, to make the point that the colors are the "meaning", not the trees. I like to get rid of "depth", so hammered into my brain by the great Norman Rockwell school. That reminds me (and maybe you, the viewer) that after all, you are looking at a painting about: color.

Kindly,

Casey Klahn

Research Keyboard

Keyboard to Pollock Research. Detail: Jackson Pollock's The Key, 1946.

The Jackson Pollock Researcher is now accessed via a virtual key at the right side of this page. Click on the key image and the link takes you to the definitive list regarding the popular Modern artist.


JP News: Pollock Squared is a low budget, innovative art movie that brings Jackson Pollock back to life via the participation of contemporary NY area artists.
Press.

The Jackson Pollock Researcher

Number 31, 1950
at the MoNA
Jackson Pollock

Lavender Mist, 1954
Jackson Pollock

This post will be my selection of Jackson Pollock links.

This blog receives an inordinate amount of traffic from the query: Jackson Pollock. Aside from an entertaining study I did about this key light of the Abstractionists, I have to admit that I haven't got much really meaty or original content about him here at The Colorist. Not, at least, of any academic value.

But, for the good of the cause, I will aggregate some research here about Jackson Pollock. Then, the numerous college students who find my site can get on with their studies. By the way, I have been heartened by the otherwise non-Pollock attention that students have paid to The Colorist. Maybe there is some original content in here after all!

Jackson Pollock Research:

• New York Times On Topic for Jackson Pollock-Link. Best to read the NYT if you value critics that use words like "inimitability". Otherwise, follow their Jackson Pollock Navigator until you find an article that makes some sense.
• My dated post on the topic of Jackson Pollock links.
• Squidoo Lens on Pollock.
• MoMA Collection of Pollocks. Link. From the NYT list, but I'll put it here as an important collection.
• The Art News Blog lists these links for Pollock.
• The Pollock-Krasner House.
• Pollocksthebollocks is a blog with a base in Abstract Expressionism.
• The movie about Jackson Pollock has certainly pushed forward his star in the public conscience. My review is found here.
• There is an interesting video legacy of the drip painter which may do much for his posterity as we go further into this digital age. Hans Namuth and Paul Falkenberg.
• Jackson Pollock Unauthorized. Looks like bootleg prints, but some good info, too.
  

You can't get through Pollock without visiting Abstract Expressionism.

• Here are my posts on the topic.
• I recommend the Wikipedia post on the topic.
• This book, Taschen's Abstract Expressionism, by Barbara Hess, is a good pictorial analysis, by artist, of the great American movement.
• A dated Wordpress blog with some nice AE references.

And the inimitable Clement Greenberg requires some study if you want to cover JP correctly:

• Wikipedia.
• Art Czar: The Rise and Fall of Clement Greenberg, Marquis. Did CB invent Modern Art? Read this new bio for extra, extra credit.
  
• I see my local Portland Art Museum has the significant collection of Clement Greenberg's catalogs and private art collection. Wow.
• Official CG site.

Work in progress. Although I know there is already a Squidoo Lens on Pollock, I see room for more definition. My own spin. The opportunities are to illustrate it properly (without stepping on toes) and to lay out the format well. Any ideas?

Heroic Art Ideas

Abstract/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning and American Art, 1940-1976, is open at The Jewish Museum from May 4th through September 21st, 2008. The famous action painters were chronicled, commended and enshrined by the art critics Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg. The way Peter Schjeldahl has it in the current issue of The New Yorker, the real action figures may have been Greenberg and Rosenberg. See what you think.

Coming soon to The Colorist:
The Jackson Pollock Researcher. My hits on the subject of JP are so numerous, I will serve humanity by posting the catch all, end-all collection of Pollock links.

Rothko-ized

I have become Rothko-ized! Now, I am a fully functioning zombie in the Mark-Mode.

Just kidding. I will be "out of pocket", as the hip people say, for the next three weeks. On the road for Bellevue, Park City and Sun Valley. Reports will be posted at
the Endless Summer Art Fair.

You are owed a better end to the Rothko study. Sorry, I'm not ready for the definitive post, yet. I will have some down time between driving stretches, and maybe I'll get to post a little.

The quick things I can share are my pre-conclusions. Greenberg and that whole gang (including MR) were so impressed with abstraction being the break-out style for modern art that they felt they needed to push it to it's absolute limits. I'm not sure if we have reached those limits, yet. The cracks in that infrastructure developed before the Abstract Expressionist school could run its course.

I disagree with the dialectic that insists abstraction is the end-game of art. There are some solid values to abstraction, and it is fundamental to art as a historic continuum, and as a rudimentary part of the formal structure of art itself. I love the stuff, personally.

Rothko was a huge figure on the American landscape, whose color field art did a better job of breaking away from figuration than Pollock's art, IMHO. Not to compare too much, but the lack of line and the forwarding of the element of color are why I say MR is better. Action painting, as absolutely fantastic as it is, is still very dependent (Pollock's work) on the line.

Let's see. Now that I've dug this big hole, I guess I'll have a fine job ahead of me to fill in the rationales! I don't want to leave you with a comparison between JP and MR. That's too far off the mark for understanding the Abstract Expressionists.

Let's leave you with this awesome photo of The Irascibles, a group of artists otherwise known as the Abstract Expressionists, or the New York School. I wanted to photoshop myself in there as an interviewer, but I didn't want a lawsuit from the photographer. Perhaps you'll just have to imagine that part.

Image of the Abstract Expressionists known as The Irascibles.http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/a/images/abstexp_irascibles_lg.jpeg
"The Irascibles" (photo by Nina Leen, 1950, for Life magazine) Front row, left to right: Theodore Stamos, Jimmy Ernst (son of Max Ernst), Barnett Newman, James Brooks, Mark Rothko. Middle row: Richard Pousette-Dart, William Baziotes, Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, Robert Motherwell, Bradley Walker Tomlin. Back row: Willem De Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Ad Reinhardt, and Hedda Sterne.

Note:
Want to know more about Hedda Sterne? Fascinating. She is the last surviving member of this famous photo.

Untitled

Mark Rothko,
apparently without a cigarette in his hand.

Welcome to Katherine's readers. We have been spending a great deal of time on the Abstract Expressionists, who are a major influence on my own art. Jackson Pollock came first (complete with movie review) and we are still in the middle of studying Mark Rothko.

The Rothko book from the grave has been a terrific influence on me . It has helped to widen my own philosophy of art. I'll need a little more time to be able to write about it though. In the meantime, I refer you to the best review of the book that I've read by Sheldon Nodelman in Art in America.
A quote from Nodelman:

Art and philosophy, for Rothko, are parallel enterprises, the only two human activities that aim to articulate a totalizing representation of human reality. They alone have the full capacity to "generalize"--a term of great significance to Rothko--i.e., to ascend from particular experiences toward universal truths. For Rothko this reality was dual-natured, objective and subjective, embracing equally both the circumstances of the world in themselves and the human experience of and imaginative response to them. The artist's mission is to reduce all experience, external and internal, to its essential unity. Rothko insists on the need to keep this goal firmly in view and to differentiate between true art--an activity defined by artistic intention--and its pseudomorphs proliferating in the contemporary world, all those appropriations of its techniques and languages for merely instrumental ends that we now call "visual culture."

Links:

The Artist's Reality, Rothko
Abstract Expressionism Timeline, Met Museum
Book Review, Nodelman
Front Page of Art in America Magazine

Memorial Day

Last year at this time
I was overseas attending a Memorial Day service at the American Cemetery in Florence.

Memorial Day, and a mixture of thoughts borne to me by my readings and my memories are giving me pause.

My Mark Rothko book has arrived in the mail, and I have mixed feelings as I open it to read. Christopher Rothko, a psychologist and the late artist's son, has organized and published The Artist's Reality, Philosophies of Art from a long stored manuscript written by the late artist.

Imagine the labor that went into this book. Christopher was left an orphan by his father's sudden suicide in 1970, and his mother Mell's passing only 6 months later. Can there be any doubt as to the trauma felt by the six year-old boy after his father slit his own wrists? On top of the emotional loss came the endless and brutal legal battles over his father's estate.

The Jackson Pollock and Vincent van Gogh stories have also made sobering reading for me of late.

What's more, I also just finished watching Flags of Our Fathers. The kids and I were renting a Sponge Bob classic, and I spotted the Clint Eastwood flick. The idea of the movie came from the James Bradley book, which is a post-mortem research by the son of one of the famous servicemen who raised the US flag on Iwo Jima. I had trepidation seeing it, because of the historical redaction that is beginning to torture our historical memory of the great conflict of my father's generation. It turned out to be a faithful and, IMO, an honest story telling of the dramatic events surrounding the Iwo Jima saga. The same February of 1945 that this Pacific Theater battle was being fought, my own father was in combat in a far less publicized theater of the global conflict: Northern Italy.

A year ago this Memorial Day I was honoring my late father's service in the Second World War at the US Cemetery in Florence, Italy. My dad, Kenneth Klahn was in the famous Tenth Mountain Division, which was a super-elite organization that created a great legacy in battles known by the names of places: Riva Ridge, Mount Belvedere, and the Po River.

Maybe the memories of my own father has a little to do with my emotional connection to Christopher Rothko's story. He, too, is remembering his father's life.

Links:

Flags of Our Fathers-Movie
Florence American Cemetery
Flags of Our Fathers, James Bradley's book about his late father, John "Doc" Bradley.
Tenth Mountain Division

Teri Horton's "$5 Pollock"

There is a pretty hefty backlash that has accompanied the abstract movement. It's just a crock and a hoax - an elaborate promotional "smoke and mirrors" show, if you ask the detractors. What good is art that is about nothing?

The latest installment from the naysayers is the Teri Horton Five Dollar Pollock story. Her story is well covered in the news media, and it's a knee-slapper. Did the retired lady truck driver inadvertantly buy a forgotten Jackson Pollock painting? She found the big canvas at a thrift store, and bought it for her friend as a joke for 5 bucks. An art professor from the local college gave her the clue that it might be a Jackson Pollock, and her retort is classic: "Who the #@*^! is Jackson Pollock?"

So, here is our dear Teri, holding onto this (virtually worthless to her) painting that maybe could fetch up to $140,000,000 if she can just find the right sucker buyer for it. I am doubled over in laughter watching clips of this lady and a host of arts professionals tearing their hair out trying to make up establish a provenance for it.

Was there a fingerprint on the Five Dollar Pollock that corresponds to known Jackson Pollock fingerprints? Evidence from his Long Island studio, and from a JP in the Tate museum apparently match. But, the hard-headed and harder-hearted arts experts disagree. Fingerprints don't mean anything to museum curators or art appraisers that have seen the painting.

This woman is trailer trash, basically, to the snobby snobs of the art world, and the ghost of JP himself could appear to them and say: "It's mine!" and they still wouldn't buy it from the likes of Teri Horton. Take it as an article of faith - you can't trade with the high brows if you don't smell like money already. That's the message of the story Horton is putting forth, anyway.

If a Pollock really could be purchased for $5, then what is the real intrinsic value of a big canvas covered with drips? If he were any good, why couldn't he just paint a figure, a faerie or a piece of fruit, like any other normal artist?

It all comes down to provenance, in my humble opinion. No signature on the work? Then, if the artist Jackson Pollock painted it, and didn't sign it, then he was devaluing it, himself. Then, he failed to destroy it, which is the accepted norm for artists. It seems that our Teri Horton was offered 9 Million dollars for the piece, but refused it as too little. Bad move.

Artists today have powerful tools to establish a paper trail for their work: signature (DUH!), jpeg, date of creation, list of showings, commentary from first and third party sources, receipt of sale with value established, names of owners, etc. All these things are data that helps to tag that artwork down through history.

Teri's Five Dollar Pollock is a byproduct of the Antiques Roadshow era, where any schmuck can fall off a turnip wagon and come up smelling like a rose. Rags to riches, as it were. Don't be angry at the art world, Teri. Brush up on your pitch!

The bigger lesson is the commentary on modern art that this episode reveals. The rank and file don't like the art, don't care for the artists that much and really dislike the highbrow art world that surrounds this whole mess. But, I have found out that there is a similar current in society that doesn't like any art, abstract or real. The artist today, and the army of other people who make their livings from art, have a ways to go before they have the exalted place in society and civilization that they picture for themselves. Maybe one start may be to reach out to the Teri Hortons of the world, somehow. A little proof of value wouldn't hurt the artist any.

I liked what this commenter had to say regarding the Five Dollar Pollock and Horton's problems with it:

"Ultimately, it does not matter if the painting is a Pollock or not. The value of it is determined by what someone is willing to pay for it. There is no intrinsic value of any 'Art' piece. There is no MSRP in the art world. She was offered 2 million dollars for it, so that is what it is currently worth (if that offer even still stands). If she rejects that offer and /or it is rescinded, and there is no other offer, the painting is worth 5 dollars. plain (sic) and simple. This is economics 101. 'Art' is no exception."

Posted by pmfaricy on Sun, May 6, 2007 9:17 PM ET

Another Blogger's opinion:

http://www.bookofjoe.com/2006/11/what_teri_horto.html

POLLOCK

The Ed Harris Movie About

Our Artist

See the trailer for Pollock, here. Two thumbs up says Casey Klahn of Davenport, Washington. Of course, this comes from a guy whose standard movie fare is Scoobie-Doo and Cinderella. Any "grown-up" movie will float my boat, I guess.

As I was watching this DVD, first on our old Magnavox, and then on a little 13" red Dora The Explorer TV which seemed to run the disk better, I took notes to share with you. At first, I was fairly critical, probably because I wanted something else from the movie. I wanted a run through of the Who's Who among Abstract Expressionists.

They did feature Lee Krasner, of course. In fact Marcia Gay Harden won best supporting actress for her role as Pollock's artist "stand-by-your-man" wife. Val Kilmer puts a face on Willem DeKooning. Clement Greenberg, Peggy Guggenheim, and Betty Parsons are important non-artists in the plot. Other artists featured were William Baziotes, Franz Kline, and Helen Frankenthaler, but I missed the references to them. Perhaps I needed name tags on them.

My interests run more towards JP as a member of the Abstract Expressionist movement. That's probably because he's not my favorite artist of that group. I have focused on him first this month because of his historic place in the AE-ists. He is the most famous one, after all. My favorite? Mark Rothko. Go figure. He's the one who masters color in abstraction, IMHO.

In short, I first had trouble with the movie's stereotyped take on Peggy Guggenheim, who was the super-rich patron and gallery owner. Typical power wielding, "you totally need me" gallerist that pulls the strings. Same with Clement Greenberg, the famous art critic biggie who "made" Pollock what he was.

But, after watching the tragic life play out, I did begin to soften my criticism. Ed Harris is a good student of the artist, who only chose to try his first effort at movie direction because nobody else had the understanding level that he did of the great American artist. And then, he took his movie all the way to academy award acclamation. Not bad for a beginner - I would say the parallels to the originality of JP are there.

Go rent this movie if you haven't done so already. It's a rare contemporary movie about the courage of artists who live to paint originally, at any cost.

Trivia Note:

Mark Rothko entries on Google - 1,040,000
Jackson Pollock entries on Google- 1,430,000
"Casey Klahn" entries on Google- 1,510
I have a long, long way to go...

(data collected May 9th, 2007 @ 9 AM)

Pollock Links & References

The Colorist
About The Colorist blog.

Galaxy, 1947
Jackson Pollock

Update May 28th., 2008: See also The Jackson Pollock Researcher for the comprehensive and current links on Jackson Pollock.

Originality was the hallmark of Jackson Pollock's art. He found a way to both connect with, and yet break free of whatever else had been happening with art. It's a little hard to appreciate the originality of Pollock from our high horse of retrospection. I liken it to some of my experiences with rock climbing. Sure, a particular rock climb will have a difficulty rating and a status as severe or hard, but when you go to climb it, you feel that it isn't as hard as described. Well, put yourself in the sticky shoes of the very first ascensionist. What was the experience like for him?

So, imagine the first "pure" abstraction. How does one completely eliminate the subject from a painting? The Abstract Expressionists often likened abstract painting to getting "in touch" with your inner child, because children draw and paint with freedom and innocence. I argued with that comparison until I had my own children picking up pencils and crayons. Now, I completely believe in the childlike aspects of abstract visual expression. Now, I just have to work out my objections to the "primitive man" comparisons to painting abstraction.

My own experience with abstraction took place when I took a workshop from Diane Townsend, who happens to be a great abstractionist with ties to New York and my hero Wolf Kahn.

How do you begin painting abstractly? Townsend unlocked that door for me, and before noon on the first day I was having a great time painting "nothing". I hope to continue my exploration of abstraction in the near future. It actually can be one of the hardest styles to paint in and make anything really good. My abstracts can be seen here and here.

Let's follow some link paths for Jackson Pollock.

Steven Naifeh and Greg Smith have written a Pulitzer prize winning biography titled: Jackson Pollock, An American Saga. I have some serious misgivings about it's historicity, but suffice it to say that it seems to be the "go to" book now for looking at his life. Ed Harris brings it to our attention in his comments about his movie about the keen artist.

Harris also thinks Pollock may have been manic-depressive. Of course, my first inclination would be to look up the paperwork on his 4-F status, just in case that might reveal something about a diagnosis of this or something similar. I guess he also saw therapists, and the records from that probably reveal something, too. Shades of van Gogh.

Pollock's Studio Floor

Don't miss the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton (Long Island). This small property with rustic facilities was purchased by Pollock and Krasner with help from Peggy Guggenheim, who was Pollock's "super-patron". It was here that Pollock began his drip paintings, and you may visit this museum and walk on the floor where his drips are preserved. Could these be considered accidents?

I recommend the Pollock bio written by the director of the P-K House, Helen Harrison.

There is a Pollock-Krasner Foundation, which I think is a very classy move by the late Lee Krasner, who was left as a widow by her drunken and cheating genius-artist husband. Trying to figure out what made Krasner's relationship with Pollock tick is an exercise in head-trips that some may enjoy. We'll look at the wonderful Krasner a little later in our Abstract Expressionist study this month.

The National Gallery of Art in DC has a good site about the old boy. A quick look at his process is seen in this GIF - Video. Here's a Quicktime featurette of a Hans Namuth film of the Camel-smoking curmudgeon at his task of working a horizontal canvas.

I have to limit the scope of JP references found at the Museum of Modern Art, since they are numerous. Man, this stuff is knee-deep. How does one have an "itinerant childhood"? Uh, never mind the MoMA for now...

Of course, my favorite site for Jackson Pollock is the fun and interactive "Create Your Own" Jackson Pollock by Milos Manetas. It's an ingenious flash page where you drip "paint" on your CRT screen. Of course, you don't control the color - those come as accidents. My only advice is cut loose, don't stay inside the frame, and don't stop too soon!

Links referenced above:
http://www.amazon.com/Jackson-Pollock-American-Steven-Naifeh/dp/0913391190
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/pkhouse.nsf
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/pkhouse.nsf/pages/pollock
http://www.pkf.org/
http://www.nga.gov/feature/pollock/index.htm
http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

Administrative note:
I would have liked to provide an image of my "Jackson Pollock" done on the flash simulator, but it looks like that is blocked. I also wished to place the videos directly in my post, but it's beyond my capabilities at this time. Do follow the links because seeing the painting style of JP in action is an eye opener.
Still Coming-my movie review of POLLOCK.

And Now, for the Critics of Pollock...

The Connoisseur Norman Rockwell
1962

Do you think Rockwell had a bad opinion of Pollock, or just a humorous side to him?

One thing I noticed is that it's a pretty good abstract, and in good illustrator's format, the main lines lead towards the figure.

JP & LK at the Beach

Jackson Pollock & Lee Krasner

Not the most flattering photo, eh? I watched the movie by Ed Harris last night and I'll be offering you my review soon. Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock certainly lived the days of wine and roses. No, make that whiskey and roses.

You certainly feel sorry for the old guy, especially after he drives his Caddy off the road and ends it all. I love Pollock's stuff, which I had the pleasure of seeing at the MoMA last year. Ed Harris seems to have put some real effort into the movie, too.

I know one thing, I have this hard to control desire to go out and buy an oversize jeans jacket. Where did that urge come from?