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Art Personal Opinion and Reflection: Jackson Pollock

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Art Personal Opinion and Reflection: Jackson Pollock

Introduction

My preferred artist is Michael Jackson Pollock. Jackson Pollock was born in the year

1912 in Cody, Wyoming, United States of America. He was the fifth and the youngest son of his

Irish-Scottish descent family (O’Hara, 2015). During his youthful life, Pollock utilized his first

nine years to travel around the U.S. with this father while attending his duties as a surveyor.

Jackson later developed a passion for animals, land, and the overall environment that surrounded

him. Pollock schooled at the Manual Arts High before joining the Art Students League in New

York. This was the biggest motivator for his artistry works. Pollock was an American painter and

is a well-renowned figure in the abstract expressionist movement. Pollock is widely remembered

for his approaches involving the splashing of liquid home paints on the surface. Pollock

frequently used this approach which enabled him to view and color his artworks from all angles.

Besides, I love how he relied on other artists to come up with his paintings.

Throughout his artistic career, Pollock was influenced severally by the various styles. He

created arts that communicated deeper on the Native Americans, Cubism, Surrealism, and even

regionalism in his lifetime. While he was starting his career, he was motivated by Thomas

Benton’s works, his mentor at the Art Students League. Specifically, Pollock was most

influenced by Benton’s American Scene Artwork. Until his untimely death in 1956, Jackson

Pollock created a series of memory-lasting artworks. Most of these artworks were of his precise

pouring or dripping style. He often painted circles and paint dripping while creating his creative

style, which he referred to as “direct painting” motivated by the Indian American sand painting.

His direct painting style earned him recognition and a new artistic name, “Jack the dripper.” In
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this paper, I will be reviewing Mural, male and female, and Yellow Island and its importance to

the audience and the environment at large.

Jackson Pollock Artwork Review and Reflection

Yellow Island

Jackson Pollock completed the yellow island art in 1952 in London, United Kingdom.

Pollock utilized the abstract expression theme with a black pouring while creating this artwork.

The “Yellow Islands” piece was created by combining yellows and crimsons with different

drippings on top of every layer. Therefore, this emphasized the yellow color was creating an

abstracting view of the archipelago when viewed on the map. According to Smith (2016),

Pollock endured a lot of criticisms of this work until 1953. Yellow Island piece is an abstract

using island imagery with black swirled paintings over the yellow marks. Staker (2019) noted

that the yellow and crimson spots are forming island shapes scattering in a vast ocean when

observed from a distance. While creating this artwork, Pollock used various elements such as

tone, color, lines, patterns, shapes, and form, amongst others, to create an abstract scene of the

Yellow Island. Black lines, for instance, were used to illustrate ocean waves. Texture represented

how soft and rough the waves could be around the islands colored with a yellow color. Smith

(2016) posits that this artwork is critical in capturing someone’s dark moods. Besides, it

represents edgy vibes and Unwariness.

The mood generated from the piece is a reminder of how many people feel, especially

when the mind is stressed and filled with anxiety. In my opinion, this piece was created on

emotions. It shows the journey that most of us pass through in life. This work is a reflection of

the current trends in modern society. With the advent of technology, many people are worried
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about how their future looks like. Seeing the artwork now can act as a healer from the current

tribulations. I have this piece in my room, which often relieves my mind from stress related to

my work and home. The yellow island piece is a motivator that can push someone forward

whenever life becomes more challenging. Anyone having suicidal thoughts can be relieved just

by looking at this art. In my opinion, Pollock needed to change his style. In this artwork, the

audience did not love it, probably because of the predictability that was in this piece. Pollock was

stagnant and needed fresh ideas in his latest works. Besides, due to the new dripping style, the

Yellow Island was regarded as confusing. Tis was the case due to the complexity of the new

method. Perhaps this explains the reason why the audience did not like this work at first. But

today, this artwork is valuable and applicable across the divide.

Figure 1: Jackson’s Yellow Island Artwork

Source: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/pollock-yellow-islands-t00436

Jackson Pollock’s male and female

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Jackson created the Male and female artwork in 1942. Just like the yellow Islands, this

piece was an oil canvas embodying an abstract expressionism painting style. It consists of

several detailed images, shapes, and old inconsistencies. Pollock created this artwork when he

was undergoing therapy. In this work, paint is seen splashed onto the canvas for the first time in

its paintings. The art expresses the differences between males and females. From the artwork, it

is evident that the figure on the left has conspicuous eyelashes and a curvier red torso, this figure

on the left is believed to represent females. On the right, it symbolizes a male since it has very

many numbers. The figure on the left is in the opposite direction to the right-sided figure (male),

which illustrates the current notion of what the two genders signify.

Figure 2: Jackson’s Male and Female Artwork

Source: (http://pollockprints.org/male-and-female/)
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The artwork shows that both the figures are standing in a yellow triangulation on a

splashed oil paint. Several shapes are used in this painting, such as the moon, which illustrates

the darker side of both genders. Moon references can visibly be seen on the heads of both

figures. However, the moon on the left figure has a dark half-moon, while the one on the right

shows a full moon with a shadow. This work is filled with many colors and a lot of shapes

making the artwork unclear, congested. It can be noted that Pollock was overambitious during

this time. Besides, at the time he was creating this piece, Pollock had not earned a name yet.

Mural

In Mural, Pollock sets no focal point in creating this piece. Still, the artwork can draw the

attention of the users. He utilizes several painting layers in bringing this art into life. When you

see this piece for the first time, the first thing that enters into the mind is whether there are some

hidden characters in its background. For me, when I saw this piece, I concluded that it was

purely abstracting expressionism. This is because there it lacks an identifiable object or subject.

But in a real sense, when I took my time to understand the piece, I realized it might be the

sporadic images used in it may be the focal point and the subject in this piece. Mural artwork is

one of the most significant pieces that Jackson Pollock ever created. Until now, the Mural is

regarded by various historians as a liberating moment. This is the case because it is established

that when Pollock was creating this piece, he went beyond the restrictive traditional beliefs. The

Mural provides conflicting interpretations. It gives viewers a sense of freedom while interpreting

at an individual level.

In my opinion, Pollock used pretentious titles in structuring his work male and female,

Mural and yellow island to represent his dark side. Besides, the expression being portrayed in the

Mural seems to be very violent. In some work, I can also note that Pollock is juxtaposing colors
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and values in a manner that creates gaping holes and misrepresentation. Even though many of his

works' critics addressed the crowding of the canvas, I disagree with the critics' opinions. The

Mural, as shown in figure 3, is very detailed and voluminous. The swirling line and forms are

painted spontaneously while lacking a preliminary sketch. However, the absence of the initial

drawing in the Mural was purely intentional. Pollock wanted to bring forth his personal, cultural,

political, and social references in his art. Therefore, it was a reflection of Pollock's personal

experiences.

Figure 3: Jackson’s Mural Artwork

Source: (https://www.jackson-pollock.org/mural.jsp)

Appropriateness of Pollock’s artworks

The first impression of art is reflecting on the cultural practices within the surrounding

society. However, it might not be feasible to incorporate this in coping up with future diversities.

The abstract expressionism painting style adopted by Pollock was essential. The audience during

those times required moral understandings, relational and spirituality/religious understanding.

Most of his works, including the yellow island and the mural, expressed this style. Therefore,
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they represented a broad psychological aspect that was less liberal and did not advocate for

political transformations—any artistic work produced during the world war period needed to be

provoking an overt-like reaction. In most of Jackson’s works, this principle was seen.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Jackson Pollock’s artistic paintings were less liberal and never meant to

create a political overt after the World War II period. However, as illustrated in the above

examples, his works had a broader perspective of social and psychological idealism. Even

though he died in 1956, Jackson’s pieces were an epitome of change that individuals required in

the 1960s (Jones, 2005). Lastly, his works were critical in creating a distinction existing between

static visual results that were not dynamic, like movies.

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References

Jones, C. A. (2005). Eyesight alone: Clement Greenberg's modernism and the bureaucratization

of the senses. University of Chicago Press.

O’Hara, F. (2015). Jackson Pollock. Pickle Partners Publishing.

Smith, W. S. (2016). JACKSON POLLOCK. Art in America, 104(3), 150-151.\

Staker, M. (2019). Jackson Pollock and the Native-American shaman.