In the mid to late 1940’s Jackson Pollock emerged as a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. After being introduced to the use of liquid paint, Pollock implemented a dripping technique on a horizontally oriented canvas that was unfamiliar to many. Pollock’s implementation of horizontality and gravity as mediums in a majority of his works are considered by many as his greatest contribution to the history of art.
While attempting to produce long, flowing and unbroken lines Pollock encountered several problems characteristic of easel painting. Pollock was inconvenienced by the continual need to reload his paint brush and the dragging of his hand caused by his strokes against the canvas. After his continued frustration, and implementation of new painting techniques such as squeezing paint directly on to the canvas, Pollock adopted a new method of painting unknown to many. By pouring the pigments on to a flat horizontal canvas Pollock was able to create the long lines he so desired and was no longer required to continually re-administer paint on to his brush. Pouring the paint through the air allowed Pollock to retain more paint on his sticks and trowels, work with fewer interruptions and introduce gravity as a participant in the painting process.
To some, Pollock’s positioning of his canvas horizontally on the floor was a drastic change from the customs set by painters of the past. Rosalind Krauss, an American art critic and theorist, saw Pollock’s employment of horizontality as a medium as an extreme regression from the intellectuality and knowledge that stems from man’s erect vertical posture. Krauss further argued that the positioning of the canvas on the ground and the pouring of paint was representative of the corporeal acts of defecation and urination. When asked about the unique orientation of his canvas, Pollock did not find it to be unusual, as Orientals have been employing the same technique for hundreds of years prior to himself. Pollock did not implement a horizontal canvas to add deeper meaning to his works but rather he saw this method of painting as the most effective way to achieve his desired results. After completion Pollock’s works were always presented and viewed vertically against a wall, further strengthening the argument that Pollock’s horizontal orientation of the canvas during the painting process had no significant meaning.
In order to fully understand the effects of Pollock’s unique positioning of his canvas further investigation of his reliance on gravity as a medium is needed. Using pouring as his preferred method of distributing the paint on to the canvas had great consequences on his style of painting, namely transforming his process from a two dimensional to a three dimensional affair. While other artists inevitably had to come in contact with their artwork, Pollock, using his pouring technique, was free to maneuver his sticks in three dimensional space. By doing so, Pollock severed the physical connection between the painter and the painting itself, and truly transformed painting into a three dimensional process.
However, Pollock also inadvertently sacrificed many luxuries that are available to more traditional painters. Pollock no longer had the ability to suspend his painting at will, as he could no longer interrupt his movements while working through the air. Surprisingly though, Pollack was able adapt this difficulty to his advantage. By pouring the pigment through the air, the canvas recorded not only the volume of paint used but also the velocity at which the pigment was dispensed. In choosing this technique in which the canvas registers nearly all changes in motion or pace, Pollock created a unique relationship with his audience, where the viewer could infer how the effects on the canvas were formed by the artist. Pollock’s paintings amplified the physicality of his process and made it evident to his viewing audience.
Pollock’s painting process was highly dependent on the use of sufficiently malleable materials that could be effectively manipulated through space. If the viscosity of the paint that he was using was too low, the paint would not form distinct lines on the canvas, resulting in small scattered puddles of watery paint. Conversely, if the paint was too thick, the paint would not be pliable enough and would fall onto the canvas in lumps. In his work, Pollack used both a pouring method, which produced the long unbroken lines, and a dripping method, which allowed Pollack to produce individual dots on the canvas. In order, to accommodate for these two different techniques of paint distribution, Pollack often adjusted the physical consistency of his paints. When pouring, Pollack would increase the volume of paint on his brush and would move the brush at a rate based upon the type of effect he was trying to achieve. To drip, Pollack would decrease the overall volume of the paint on his brush and would move the brush quickly after a sufficient dot was produced. Although discrete droplets appear in many of Pollack’s works, their visual impact is subordinate to that of the linear tracks of paint. Therefore, of the two methods, it was pouring not dripping that provided Pollack’s abstractions with their distinctive character. By fine-tuning the physical qualities of his paint as well as carefully controlling the dispensing process, Pollack was able to produce some of the most vivid evocations of motion in the history of painting.
Works Cited
Cernuschi, Claude, and Andrzej Herczynski. "The Subversion of Gravity in Jackson Pollock's Abstractions." The Art Bulletin 90.4 (2008): 616-39. Art Full Text. Web. 27 Nov. 2011.
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