4. Work of Art

Pollock is often a name that comes up when talking about eh New York School Movement. Even those this movement was primary based in poetry, the poets often drew inspiration from the “action painters”. In this kind of painting there is no emphasis on individual parts. This was a new idea in the 40’s and 50’s in which Pollock was an innovator. Pollock's paintings had no relation to shape or size of canvas it was the paintings that decided the shape in size of the canvas. The ‘drip and splash’ style of painting was what Pollock was most known for is shown in this painting. For this style of painting Pollock sets his canvas on the floor and pours or drips paint from a can. In place of brushes he used sticks, knives, sand, or broken glass. This type of painting supposedly brought out the unconscious moods of the artist.

In this particular painting by Pollock he does the drip and splash technique along with some other techniques. The painting seems to have multiple layers. The back layer looks as if there is some kind of a distorted face of maybe a robot. There also seems to be some repetition of the colors of yellow, red, green, and blue. Parts of the painting seem to be painted with a brush. The painting appears simple and basic like the colors that it uses but has a deeper meaning underneath. It is very confusing when you look close at all of the layers and different techniques.

The painting has some relevance to the poems from the New York School. The repetition, and layers of meaning are the most common aspects. I am not that familiar with art but it seems like the simple hues that the painting has is comparable to the style of journal that the poems are structured in. Both can be very confusing but it is the absurdity that makes them interesting and makes you think harder about them.