Start with your eyes
Look:
Literally, what is in front of you? Just say what you see. OK, it’s a painting. It’s made of paint, splashed on a canvas. How does it look? The paint has been thrown randomly onto the canvas, not applied carefully with a brush.
There’s dripped lines of light blue paint, red, green, silver and, in fact, there’s a bare footprint visible on the top right. And there are eight blue pole-like lines down the canvas, at different angles to each other.
See:
Usually for this second step I suggest then having a crack at interpreting what is there in front of us, unpacking the symbols we recognise – that is, the “iconography”. But hold on a minute – Blue poles is completely abstract.
There are some pole-like shapes, and that footprint, but the rest is just wild, crazy shapeless splats that don’t represent anything, right? OK, park this information for a second, and move onto the last step.
Think:
This step is where you, the viewer, have to plug in your brain and do some work. Don’t think of looking at art as like watching the TV. It’s more like doing a crossword puzzle or Sudoku – it is work, but it’s fun.
Jackson Pollock.
Wikimedia commons
It’s about taking those clues that you’re presented when you “look” and “see”, and then applying some creative interpretive thinking to them.
Interpretation, of course, doesn’t mean that any explanation is right regardless of how wacky. It means you have to consider what is plausible.
We have to consider what was happening in the world in which the work came about, and in the artist’s life, to find the clues.
The first thing to ask is: who is the artist? What do we know about them? In this case, even if it’s just “Jackson Pollock was a drunk”, we have something to work from.
But hey, this isn’t a test – so cheat.
Skim-reading Wikipedia, we can see he was an “Abstract Expressionist”, he painted canvases flat on the floor, and he was a reclusive who underwent psychoanalysis to treat his alcoholism. Now you’ve got some context.
So, let’s put it all together.
Blue Poles (Number 11), 1952
Image: content.ngv
Originally named “Number 11,” Pollock gave the work the title “Blue Poles,” which was first seen in an exhibition at the Sidney Janis Gallery in 1954.
The medium used in this artwork is enamel and aluminum paint with glass on canvas.
Jackson’s thought behind this painting was to depict the unconsciousness of human minds.
He was fascinated by Jungian psychoanalysis, which led to the creation of this masterpiece.
It is one of the most famous paintings by Pollock from the abstract movement.
Known for the drip technique, this piece is different from his other work due to the vertical blue pole being the center of attraction for the viewers.
A chunk of sand and glass were also incorporated in the artwork making it unique.
National Gallery of Australia bought the painting in 1973 with a massive price tag of 1.3 million dollars.
It is considered the most renowned work held by the gallery to date.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who Created The Deep Painting?
The Abstract Expressionist artist Jackson Pollock painted The Deep (1953). It is an enamel on canvas and measures 150.2 x 220.4 centimeters. He painted it three years before his death from a car accident.
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Where Is The Deep by Jackson Pollock Housed?
The enamel on canvas titled The Deep (1953) by Jackson Pollock is held at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France. The painting was donated to the museum in 1976 by the Menil Foundation.
What Does The Deep by Jackson Pollock Mean?
There has been wide speculation about the meaning and symbolism of The Deep (1953) by Jackson Pollock. Some scholars believe it is tied to the artist’s deep emotional states during that period of his life, in which he struggled with alcoholism and other personal challenges.
Formal Analysis: A Brief Compositional Overview
The Deep painting is one of Jackson Pollock’s later artworks and one that depicts a wholly different approach to what he was famous for, namely his dynamic action “drip” paintings. Although there are hints of these techniques in this painting, the composition appears as if from another world, another level from what we associate Pollock’s work with.
Subject Matter: Visual Description
Jackson Pollock’s The Deep painting is a vertically oriented composition depicting a vertical and undefined sliver or strip of black centrally placed in the lower portion of the composition to slightly off-center to the right of the upper portion. The rest of the composition is dominantly white with parts of yellow. The white reaches into the black in the middle in the form of broken lines or lines crossing over the black.
Color
The Deep by Jackson Pollock has a limited color palette, which consists of black, and white, with sparse parts of yellow and red, which create a subtle contrast against the neutral black and white. There is also gray in the central area to the right of the black, revealed underneath the white brushstrokes.
Texture
Texture in The Deep painting is created by the brushstrokes and the paint, which is thickly applied in some areas and thin in other areas. For example, in the central area over the black is a line of poured paint, which contrasts with Pollock’s gestural and seemingly higgledy-piggledy white brushstrokes composing the space around the black section.
Line
The black strip in the center of Jackson Pollock’s The Deep painting is in a vertical line, which appears curved and diagonal and not straight. There are other types of lines created from the brushstrokes and the way Pollock poured the paint over the black strip. These appear curved and curled.
Space
The compositional space in The Deep painting by Jackson Pollock mainly consists of black and white, the latter of which covers the black strip creating an illusion of depth, as if the black area is an opening.
Shape and Form
The Deep by Jackson Pollock is an abstracted shape with no figuration. The black strip in the center is free-flowing with the brushstrokes and paint also creating a sense of flow over it.
