Post by PaulsLaugh on Oct 15, 2023 10:58:15 GMT
Paul Jackson Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming on a ranch.
However, it's the popular misconception he was an East Coast elitist who had no artistic talent, whose objective was to destroy traditional Western art. His "drip paintings" are usually cited as the worst example of modern art degeneracy as viewers think that he randomly poured paint onto a canvas.
Mural 1943
Water Birds 1943
1A 1948
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However, it's the popular misconception he was an East Coast elitist who had no artistic talent, whose objective was to destroy traditional Western art. His "drip paintings" are usually cited as the worst example of modern art degeneracy as viewers think that he randomly poured paint onto a canvas.
He was the sad bad James Dean of art; not as pretty as Dean, but more brilliant, more macho, and more troubled. We loved all the old stories about Pollock getting into fist-fights at the Cedar Tavern on 8th street, and pissing in Peggy Guggenheim’s fire place during a party. The movie puts a very different spin on those antics, less the defiant acts of a hero than the acting out of a really bad drunk. Pollock was a troubled brawler all his life. He was expelled from school twice for fighting. He probably began drinking in his early teens, and was already a serious alcoholic under treatment in his twenties. His death in a car crash sealed his lost hero James Dean credentials.
Booze and madness do only one thing for an artist's career, they end it. Pollock had already stopped painting in 1955, the year before his death at age 44.
Booze and madness do only one thing for an artist's career, they end it. Pollock had already stopped painting in 1955, the year before his death at age 44.
Water Birds 1943
1A 1948
