WHAT UP I'M GRACE I'M 21 AND I JUST LEARNED HOW TO READ

Quarantine Day 69: Stocked up on books from the library before everything was shut and 5 light years later, I've started reading Jackson Pollock & Lee Krasner by Ines Janet Engelmann. This weird time has made me realise I actually kind of hate working digitally and all I want to do is go out and take shitty photos and videos of my friends gigs and use them as references for abstract paintings. I got so many books out but now I'm not really interested in most of them because I just want to be informed by painters. Technology gets dated quickly so digital art is only cool when it's breaking through and then decades later when it's vintage. I don't really have time for that tbh. Painting is universal and timeless. The end of this degree was probably not the time to have this revelation.

CHAPTER ONE:

One artist mentioned in the book was Thomas Hart Benton and I LOVE the shapes of his paintings. It's almost real but a bit wavier. It's abstract but the reference is still clear. "Benton had shown his pupils how to detect the rhythm of complex compositions by reducing them to linear and cube elements." Below pictures a diagram from his book Mechanics of Form Organization in Painting: Figures 22, 23, and 24. Almost always, painters preparation sketches are kind of boring as they are literally just the artist planning but Benton's seem more like a translatable format that can be used for multiple works and a great source of inspiration.

Also found an interesting presentation on him here

I can't find it right now but the book mentions an essay by Graham on Primitive Art and Picasso from the Magazine of Art (April 1937) which looks into universal symbols.

CHAPTER TWO:

Pollock Birth 1941

 

Krasner Igor 1943 from her "blackout" period inspired by Hans Hofmann's 'pull-push' concept- the interaction between the background and the foreground in which colours of varying intensity create an illusion of depth. "The cooler areas sometimes draw the viewer's gaze into the depths, yet they can just as easily come to the fore." The online images of this painting are all upside down compared to the book's image and this way it looks like a chicken and I don't like it. The book's version has more powerful and elegant lines.

I'm not particularly interested in Pollock's painting She Wolf but the reasoning behind and explanation was poignant. He found out his mother was going to visit him in New York and got so drunk he was hospitalised. She Wolf was a painting that related the sense of feelings washing over him. "He would not comment of this painting: it was too personal. For others, the reason for it would be insignificant." but he did comment;

 "She Wolf came into existence because I had to paint it. any attempt on my part to say something about it, to attempt an explanation of the in-explicable could only destroy it.

Pollock was to create a mural for Guggenheim and on advice from Duchamp, he did it on a massive canvas which required him and Krasner to knock down a wall in their apartment and remove the rubble during the night so that the owner would not notice. This was obviously a big ordeal and would have taken a lot of mental energy as well as physical. Then for weeks he didn't touch the canvas; "Had Pollock been in a state similar to the shamans he admired - lengthy meditation followed bu a burst of activity?" And if that aint relatable idk what is.

Pollock's Full Fathom Five 1947 used impasto techniques including nails buttons and what I think is most interesting, cigarette ends. I've been holding on to this stash of empty baggies and pill packets unsure what to do with them. I was going to use them in Noah's ark but ultimately decided to go for minimal prop dressing. A tutor in the first week of foundation said that we should keep hold of anything we find ourselves drawn to, even if we're unsure of it's purpose in that moment. So impasto might be the way I finally utilise them which is perfectly timed as the end of uni, tenancies and the general uncertainties of living conditions ensue, I'm really trying to get rid of all the 'junk' I've accumulated in the past three years.

On p47 there's a quote from Pollock about how his influence from Indian sand painters led him to painting on the floor so that he could literally be in the painting and feel closer to it. If I had the funds to buy such large canvas, I would love to work like this as in previous abstract paintings I made in college I found that being more concerned with the details than the over all picture actually worked out better for me. Ideally once I've got a flat black background and drawn in a few lines, I can trust in the process that it will overall be a good piece but the details and intricacies is where I need to focus. The chapter also comments on Krasners obsession with horror vacui, something I really don't relate to with painting but can agree on with pencil, pen and embroidery works.

CHAPTER SOMETHING, I LOST COUNT:

Jackson Pollock number 4 1948 in Gray and Red

I enjoy the emptiness of this work and how the larger figure, although central, occupies predominantly the right half of the paper and the secondary figure is only so notable due to the negative space.

The chapter describes how Hans Namuth negatively affected Pollock's sanity but some of the footage is incredible. I kept watching from 5:48 at 0.25 speed. Making a film like this could really quickly make a lot of footage to paint from. The colour of the sky is perfect right now but I don't have any sheets of glass or acrylic available to me right now - unless I was to paint through a window. Which wouldn't give me straight sky but could develop an interesting narrative on isolation if camera was outside and I was inside. Also like when Diane Arbus did that photo series through peoples windows but less creepy more sad.

Only camera I have is my laptop webcam so this is pretty illegible but quotes I'll be referring back to.