Jackson Pollack

After watching the documentary of Horton's struggle to have the artworld validate her painting as "true" Pollack, I have come to despise this elitist world even more. However, at the same time, I have come to appreciate Pollack more after learning about his technique and seeing more of his work.

Pollack's painting, which are very abstract, seem to represent the thoughts of someone who also despised this so-called "artworld." He painted to paint - - it does not seem that he was focused on having an intentional meaning as many others before and after him did. His life was somewhat of a disappointment as alcoholism and womanzing took over his world, but he still found a way to create something that was largely unique and very difficult to replicate. His work looks like a mess of paints and splatterings, but as you watch his process in the video, it is easy to see that Pollack was methodical with his process. Maybe it was one area of his life that he actually had "control" over; as the rest of his life went haywire, he could still continue to control the "random" lines of paint and the overall product while using his particular process. For that I applaud him as he was able to control one aspect of his life and use that as a catharsis - - a release from the mess that was his life. I do not think that Pollack would have supported the elitist viewpoint of the artworld, or even liked the idea that his paintings fall in that category today.

Tolstoy rated the quality of art based on the degree of sincerity and infectiousness; these characteristics do not lend themselves well to accepting Pollack's work as quality pieces of art. Although Pollack is very methodical about his process, I do not believe that he was ever trying to demonstrate a deeper meaning or relay a certain feeling. He painted as a release, but his paintings do not infect the viewer with what he was feeling. It might relay the chaos that was his life, but no one can really understand the reason that he painted these works. I think that the sincerity was also there, but again, it is hard to see how that is translated in his works. It appears that he put effort into it and perfected the process, but it was just that - - a process. Tolstoy would not have accepted painting as a mere process and would not have appreciated that Pollack's work now falls into a more elitist category either.