"Art History Class" Why does the professor say this:

[Narrator] Listen to part of a discussion in an art history class. The professor is talking about action art.
[Professor]
In the 1950s, Abstract Expressionism emerged among a group of painters that, uh, came to be known as  Q40
the New York School, although the members included artists from many regi0nsofthe United States and
several European countries as well. In any case, we know that the brushstrokes were a significant feature
of the work of Impressionist and Post Impressionist painters, and like them, the Abstract Expressionists
were interested in the expressive qualities of paint, and particularly in the case of action painters or gesture
painters... they were sometimes called gesture painters... and they developed new methods for
applying the paint. They dripped, threw, sprayed, and, uh, splattered... paint on the canvas... with a
view to expressing artistic... actions or gestures... as part of the creative process.
Now, according to your textbook, probably the best-known of the action painters was... who?
[Student 1] Pollock.
[Student 2] Jackson Pollock.
[Professor]
No doubt about it. Pollock was a highly individual artist. He’s famous for huge mural-sized works. And...
to create them, he’d spread his unstretched canvas on the floor, and he’d approach the work from all four
sides, walking around it and attacking it with commercial house paint in cans that he carried with him.
He dripped the paint from sticks or brushes that he dipped in the cans or... or he threw the paint
and splashed it in patterns... that, uh  that reflected the motion of his arm and, uh  and his body,
as he engaged in his so-called action painting. I think you can see how the name applies to this method.
So Pollock claimed that this process allowed him to be in the painting, not apart from it.
Let me show you a picture of Pollock with a work in progress.
As you can see... and this is Pollock... he’s stepping right onto the canvas, splattering and dripping
the paint. He’s focusing on the act of painting and he’s using grand, rhythmic gestures... sort
of similar to a dance. In fact, some critics referred to the work as a performance or a choreographed  Q41
activity. He also used to pour the paint directly out of the can, and occasionally threw sand, broken
glass, uh... pebbles, and string, and other objects... he would throw them onto the canvas.
So, how much of the action art was a result of decisions and how much was pure chance? What do
you think?
[Student 3] Well, there was probably a little bit of both going on there.
[Professor]
Probably so. But Pollock contended that he could control the flow of the paint with the motion of his arm
and body... and that his work was not accidental. And it certainly was spontaneous in the sense that it
happened very quickly and the decisions that he made were, uh  were... of necessity, split second
choices. So, I would say you’re right, that action art, and Pollock’s work in particular, is a combination  Q12
of, uh, ...of chance, of artistic intuition, and, uh, ... and control. And I should point out that he was
known to retouch a drip with the brush on occasion.
Now let me show you an example of the paintings themselves.
[Professor] What do you see?
[Student 2] There’s no visual center of attention.
[Professor] Which means... ?
[Student 2] Which means... the image has no foreground, no background, no focus of attention.
[Professor]
I see. However, I think you’ll agree that it does have a, uh... a complex unity, a balance of form and
color. Look at the patterns. Wouldn’t you agree that they’re caused by the separation and weaving of
one pigment in another? And it was this... this... weaving that produced a number of tones from a
minimal palette of paints  Have any of you ever seen an original Pollock?
Student 3: I have. I went to the Guggenheim Museum when I was in New York last year.
[Professor] Could you tell the class a little about it?
[Student 3]
Sure. I thought that the work looked like skeins of yarn. Because the dripping and the small objects  Q43
produced...uh...uh...
[Professor] Texture?
[Student 3]
Yeah. Tenure as well as form, like yarn. And I also remember the light that seemed to be in the canvas.
[Professor]
And precisely because of the texture and light, it’s really a disservice to see this as a flat slide.
[Student 3] Oh another thing. A lot of the paintings were identified by numbers instead of names.
[Professor]
Oh, thanks for bringing that up. Some people think he did that because he didn’t want to limit the imagination.
He wanted others to view a painting, without prejudice, so to speak. But one piece has come to
be called "Lavender Mist.", I’m not really sure whether Pollock actually named it or not, but it’s particularly
interesting because the artist marked the image with his handprints. I think it’s in your textbook, but
again, seeing it with the texture of the paint is a different experience.
Okay, so, after the process of creation, we see beauty, order, unity, perhaps even rhythm in an
incredible light emanating from the canvas. Pollock wanted to express his feelings rather then to merely
illustrate them, and I think he did achieve that. And, whether you like them or not, and many critics
argued and continue to argue their merits, but it’s undeniable that works by Pollock are unique and recognizable...
and virtually impossible to copy, It’s also clear that he had a remarkable influence on later
artists. Uh, later artists... color-field painters who adapted the paint-pouring methods... and modern
artists who chose to work with allover patterns... and the performance artists who continue to push the
envelope on activity and process.