Джексон поллок: «единственное оправдание быть человеком

Человек, который распахивает дверь

Ли, описывая важность Джексона для ее творчества, однажды сказала, что время от времени «на твоем горизонте появляется человек, который широко распахивает дверь. И мы все долгое время живем в ожидании момента, когда в нашей жизни появится очередной такой человек и откроет перед нами новую дверь»

Ли Краснер и Джексон Поллок. Источник

Хотя многие говорили и говорят, что изначально Ли была гораздо «осведомленнее» как художник, сама Краснер всегда считала Поллока более талантливым. Она говорила, что ее творчество было лишь каплей в море влияний, которые в итоге привели к формированию такого яркого феномена, как Поллок. «Встретившись с Джексоном, я была абсолютно уверена: этому человеку действительно есть что сказать миру».

#9 The She Wolf, 1943

The She Wolf, 1943

The She Wolf is one of Jackson’s most well-known works of the pre-Drip period. It featured in his first solo exhibition in 1943 and the following year it was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art, making it the first Pollock painting to enter a museum collection. Although Pollock never confirmed it, many think that the painting is based on the legendary wolf mother of Romulus and Remus, the twins who according to a myth founded Rome. The She Wolf is considered an important painting in the development of Pollock’s artistic career and one of the best examples of his love for free-form abstraction.

#2 Number 11, 1952 (Blue Poles)

Blue Poles, 1952

It was in 1954 that No. 11, 1952 was first given the title Blue Poles, a name by which it is famous today. However some, including art historian Dennis Phillips, think that the title does the painting a disservice as the viewer concentrates on the blue poles and misses much of the rest. Blue Poles was purchased by the National Gallery of Australia in 1973 for A$1.3 million, a then world record for a contemporary American painting. Newspapers in Australia lambasted the purchase with headlines like ‘$1.3m for dribs and drabs’. There was a political scandal resulting in much public discussion which made the painting popular. Today Blue Poles is one of the major paintings in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia and its purchase is considered a masterstroke. It is regarded as one of Pollock’s best works and its fame has multiplied due to its place in Australian history.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Autumn Rhythm?

Autumn Rhythm (1950) is an enamel on canvas painting by the Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock. It is alternatively titled Number 30. The painting measures 266.7 x 525.8 centimeters.

Where Is the Painting Autumn Rhythm by Jackson Pollock Located?

The enamel on canvas Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) (1950) by Jackson Pollock is housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, also known as the Met, in New York City, the United States.

What’s the Autumn Rhythm Painting Worth?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) (1950) by Jackson Pollock for $20,000 in 1957 from the artist’s estate. However, the exact monetary worth of the artwork is uncertain, but its price could be estimated to be in the millions today.  

Formal Analysis: A Brief Compositional Overview

At first glance, the painting Autumn Rhythm by Jackson Pollock might conjure up confusion about where to start looking at it, or how to look at it. The formal analysis of the Autumn Rhythm painting will provide a bit of a starting point for how to view the artwork. It will discuss a visual description of the subject matter, followed by an overview of how the art elements of color, texture, line, shape, form, and space compose this piece, with a mention of how the principles of design occur also.

Subject Matter: Visual Description

This autumnal abstraction, Autumn Rhythm by Jackson Pollock, consists of a visual wilderness of strips, curls, clots, dots, and dashes of enamel paint poured and applied in a variety of manners onto the canvas. The canvas, which is a large rectangular shape, and horizontally oriented, is filled with paint.

The Making of Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)

Part of Pollock’s painting process was documented by the German photographer Hans Namuth, who reportedly spent the months of Summer to October/November 1950 photographing Pollock in his studio in Springs in East Hampton, New York. This was an up close and personal documentation of Pollock’s famed action painting, of which included the making of Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) among others. Reportedly, Pollock started with, as widely described, the “right third” part of the canvas.

Pollock’s studio floor in Springs, New York; the visual result of being his primary painting surface from 1946 until 1953; Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Here he first applied the color black, and the lines were thin. Following this, he applied the other colors, namely brown, white, and blue. He then reportedly moved to the center of the canvas and lastly the left side. Throughout the process he applied the paints by pouring, dripping, or splashing.

Color

The overall color scheme of Autumn Rhythm by Jackson Pollock is neutral. The background is a light beige color, which sets the stage for the poured paints. Pollock utilized a limited color palette, which consists of black, white, brown, and blue (this has been described either as a teal or grayish blue). 

Texture

The texture in Autumn Rhythm by Jackson Pollock relates mostly to the physical or tactile texture of the paints utilized. There are thick and thin areas of paint, and the enamel paint utilized appears somewhat smooth in its consistency.

A subtle contrast is created by the slightly rougher texture of the canvas, which becomes evident upon a closer view of the artwork. Furthermore, the thinner area of paint appears absorbed into the canvas, which further creates a coarser texture.

Line

Lines as art elements can include the outline of the subject matter, which provides its form. It can also occur in a variety of types, and in the case of Autumn Rhythm by Jackson Pollock, lines seemingly are the subject matter. The types of lines in this painting include curly, looped, diagonal, vertical, and horizontal.

Shape and Form

Autumn Rhythm by Jackson Pollock does not depict any “known” shapes or forms, whether geometric or more naturalistic/figurative. The composition results in abstraction, created by the artist’s drip technique of paint.

Space

Space as an art element is often described in terms of how it relates to the “area” that is utilized on a canvas (the pictorial surface) or around a sculpture. It also relates to how depth is conveyed, which can be done through different techniques like colors or scale.

Furthermore, the composition appears seemingly flat and two-dimensional, but with the crisscrossing lines and colors, an imaginary sense of depth can be found.  There is no perspective utilized to indicate a main focal area, and seemingly, the entire composition becomes the focal area. 

«Она ходила, едва касаясь ногами земли»

Когда они встретились, Ли имела большой вес в мире искусства: она была завсегдатаем всех мероприятий, уважаемым лидером борьбы за права художников и талантливым живописцем. Друзья часто говорили: если Поллок «раздираем сомнениями», то Ли «совершенно уверена в себе».

Ли Краснер и Джексон Поллок. Источник

«Она ходила, едва касаясь ногами земли, и эта легкость очень привлекала Джексона», — рассказывала Этель Базиотис, которая хорошо знала обоих. А еще, по словам Этель, Ли была экспертом в «механике жизни», в то время как Поллок своим пьянством и арестами весьма убедительно продемонстрировал, что он в этой сфере полный профан.

Друг Поллока Питер Буза говорил, что Ли сыграла роль «мощного катализатора», когда намечался курс будущего развития творчества Поллока.

По словам Питера, «Джексон пришел в современное искусство… благодаря Ли».