Jackson Pollock and Abstract Expressionism in Postwar America

The Postwar Artistic Climate and the Rise of Expressionism

According to Anthony White, the abstract paintings of the American artist Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) "are among the highest achievements of 20th-century art," and during "an unparalleled period of creativity from the late 1940s to the early 1950s, Pollock abandoned the conventional tools and methods of the painter, putting aside brushes, artist's paint and traditional composition, and poured and flung house paint directly onto large canvases placed on the floor." This unique and startling artistic style "had an enormous impact on contemporary art" which can still be sensed even today.

In order to understand and appreciate the world of Jackson Pollock and his remarkable art, we must first explore the artistic climate that preceded him during the middle years of the 20th century. Following the end of World War II in 1945 and the beginning of the Atomic Age, there persisted a haunting dread among many Americans that life "had no meaning or value," which influenced a number of highly successful artists to protest in paint against what they saw as a mechanized culture that did not tolerate individualism and non-conformity. At this time, a new artistic style emerged known as Expressionism, which was harsher, more defiant, and more rebellious than any of its predecessors and "insisted on an even more radical abstraction from the world of reality."¹

As Western civilization continued to spread its culture and beliefs to all parts of the globe during the early 1940s, traditional values and those linked to organized modern life — such as the traditional family structure — were facing harsh criticism from many different sources and were declared by some as largely false. According to Justin Spring, writing in The Essential Jackson Pollock, "It was almost as if the only value left was the belief in the artistic process on the grounds that in creativity alone resides the true nature of mankind."² Thus, the life of the artist became a model of free expression via the pursuit of self-identity and self-knowledge through art, supported by a sense of mysticism and a fascination with the unknown.

However, regardless of this desire for free expression and to live as a non-conformist, artistic individuals were forced to live and work in a modern, mechanized world in which art had become a very big business — driven by the rise of highly prominent art houses like Sotheby's and the creation of smaller art venues in cities like New York, Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Art became a commodity within its own market and generated much advertising in order to draw the general public into the world of art as buyers rather than mere museum viewers. The old divisions between the various styles of art were quickly disappearing, and some artists became emboldened to combine painting, sculpture, and architecture into a single style, supported by continuing advances in technology and science.

To the casual viewer, painting styles and techniques that emerged after World War II seemed based on confusion, "with bewildering overlaps and intersections of tendencies and influences, yet a closer look revealed a certain order to the madness which fit haphazardly into several artistic styles, such as Expressionism, Cubism and Constructivism."³

Abstract Expressionism and the Distortion of Form

This order also appeared as a fundamental pairing with the works of earlier painters — the so-called "Fathers of Modern Art" — namely Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh, and Paul Cézanne. Additionally, this new means of artistic expression reflected the dualism in Western art between the classical forms directed by the intellect and the imagination, and the Baroque and Romantic expressionism based on feelings and sensations.

During the first half of the 20th century, Cubism and Expressionism dominated the world of art and are now grouped as postwar trends and styles based on the individual artist's approach to his medium — either predominantly rational and formalistic or emotionally expressive. These groups are also descendants of either Cubism or Expressionism and are placed under the general headings of Abstract Formalism and Abstract Expressionism.

Set against the background of post–World War II America, the Expressionist artists firmly supported the personality of the artist, individuality, and identity as expressed through their paintings. Historically, these artists were heavily influenced by a tradition of Expressionism going back to Van Gogh and Kandinsky and their respective contemporaries. Among the later artists who rose from this radical art form, however, their convictions and methods were far more pronounced and vibrant. Essentially, these artists grappled with the question of whether to retain the natural human form in their paintings or to do away with it completely. In response, some chose to represent the human figure in a figural manner — reflecting the basic anatomy of the human body — while others chose complete abstraction, reducing the human form into shapes that do not appear recognizably human at first glance.

The distortion of the human form in painting as a means of expressing emotion and feeling is a rather old practice in Western art. In the 1910s, several prominent artists expressed through their paintings "an excruciating crisis linked to human emotions caught in a world of mechanization and sterility that goes well beyond Munch."⁴ Some of these paintings also reflected "an unbearable image of insane terror," supported by "an obsession with fear and the facts related to mental illness."⁵ Thus, in order for this new and radical art form to emerge, old ideals and principles related to painting were abandoned, creating a sensational new way of expressing human desires, wants, and vices through the application of paint to canvas.

Jackson Pollock: Life and Artistic Vision

This new art form also involved the destruction of traditional perspective and challenged the traditional idea of beauty in art as defined by the tenets of the Renaissance during the 15th and 16th centuries in Europe. Due to the horrors of World War II, in which millions of people were killed or injured, Expressionist artists imbued images of pain and suffering into their paintings through the use of paint and other materials. For example, some artists created works in which the surface reflects tactile reality — meaning the surface of the canvas, rather than being relatively smooth, was rough and uneven, and at times appeared almost three-dimensional. Often, these artists "manifested figural and symbolic shapes of primeval power," a reference to images that seem born from the unconscious mind, the primitive "Id" of ancient humanity, filled with mystery and the unknown.⁶

Of all the artists during the period between the end of World War II and the mid-1950s who fostered and supported Abstract Expressionism — which "emphasizes a derived essential character having little visual reference to objects in nature and reality"⁷ — Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) stands as the central figure of the New York School and best exemplifies the power of Abstract Expressionism during the postwar years in American art. At the height of his artistic powers, Pollock, along with a number of contemporaries, "shared a collective achievement that has been called the most original and distinctive in the history of American art."⁸

In the words of art critic Anthony White, the life of Jackson Pollock "is no less startling than his art." Born in Wyoming as the son of a farmer, Pollock "struggled for years to overcome an apparent lack of natural talent," yet he persevered and ended up as the shining star of the New York art world in the late 1940s and early 1950s — a time of rapid change in America's social fabric, racked by dissent, political intrigue, and the Korean War. In 1949, Life magazine posed the question, "Is Jackson Pollock the greatest painter in the United States?" — a reflection of his immense fame and recognition as "Jack the Dripper."⁹

Unfortunately, Pollock was haunted for most of his adult life by alcoholism and depression, which devastated his personal and professional life and heavily contributed to a decline in his artistic output. At the age of forty-four, Pollock was killed in an automobile accident "which prompted comparisons to other short-lived American icons," such as jazz musician Charlie Parker and Hollywood actor James Dean.¹⁰

Conclusion

When viewing any of Pollock's arrangements, be it Lucifer or Blue Poles, one gains a sense that Pollock had the uncanny ability to find order out of disorder. As an effect of the materials he utilized to create his remarkable paintings, it is abundantly clear that his works "embody a recurrent theme in contemporary America — that of modern man as 'the helpless prey of forces both within and without himself.'" In essence, Jackson Pollock "allowed his materials to speak their own language" and fervently believed and practiced the ideal that art, under all circumstances and conditions, must express "a life of its own."²¹