Comparisons between my work and that of Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock

This current piece is the result of many experiments with paint. I first started using the ‘drip technique’ in my work when portraying dancers from my performing arts background. I wanted to show the movement that the dancers were making, rather than painting them in static positions. This is when I started dripping gloss paint, as the gestures I made from the dripping gave the feeling of movement within the figures. Shortly after this, I moved onto Landscapes; in particular I was interested in the Norfolk coast in which I lived. I still use the Norfolk coast as the basis for all my work, as I am particularly interested in the wave and wind patterns: I base my work mostly on the times that the weather is particularly bad and the sea is extremely rough. What draws me to the waves is the fact that it always moves: the same can be said for the wind. Unlike the wind though, the movement of water can be seen easily and I am drawn to the visual element of movement. I used the same dripping style of painting in my landscape pieces as I believe it is an appropriate way of showing movement within a painting.

I made these types of work over and over, until eventually my work became more abstract. It became more about the movement of the wind and the waves than the actual landscape itself: I became very interested in expressing only the movement of the wind and the waves, in such a way that the actual landscape has become lost. Because I was focusing less on the landscape, I started to experiment and explore the media that I was using. I paint using white and black emulsion and gloss paint. Gloss is a very interesting paint, as when it is dripped, it dries in such a way that it is still shiny. This gives the illusion of wet paint. Another interesting thing about gloss paint is that it sits on top of the rest of the piece, showing a defined layer of paint. This adds an interesting texture to the piece, which makes the viewer want to run their hands across the work. It was through exploring and using these paints that led me to my current piece.

My current piece has a Jackson Pollock feel. The white and black gestures dance and interweave throughout the piece. The many layers give the piece a very chaotic feel, as each layer has varying directions and momentum. Unlike Jackson Pollock’s pieces, in which you stand a fair distance to look at them, I decided to make my piece smaller. This was because I wanted the viewer to stand fairly close to the piece to see the many layers of the same coloured paints. In this way the viewer can also see the layering and textured effect of gloss paint. The colours of gloss that I used in this piece were black and white mostly, but I also used another single colour. I used blue gloss drips as my work was initially based on a seascape, and in my mind I am always thinking of the sea when I create my work.

I also made small pockets within this piece by using piles of sand to raise the level of the gloss paint, and then tipping the sand out after the paint had dried. This gives a very impressive raised paint effect, as the webs of paint are sitting a fair distance from the painting surface. I think this makes the piece more complex. I find this very interesting as the viewer can actually view the layers underneath these pockets, rather than the paint being consumed entirely by the top layer. The sand also makes these raised layers of gloss very gritting, unlike the rest of the smooth and shiny areas. As well as this, the sand combines with the gloss and makes a very strong layer, which cannot be broken or snapped easily.
Another aspect of this work is that the painting surface is made from flattened Diet Coke boxes. I collected these boxes by drinking all the cans inside them, and then flattening them when I was finished. By holding these cans the boxes were useful, and by emptying them I was making their use come to an end. By flattening them and making them into a painting surface, I am giving the boxes a new use. This also makes each box very personal to me, as I have personally drunk that amount of Diet Coke. I originally chose Diet Coke boxes as when I flattened one of the boxes, I thought the shape was very interesting as the edges weren’t straight, and envisioned a large version of that shape.

I was intrigued to make a piece that was very fragile. I didn’t want to stick the boxes together with glue, I wanted the sole material other than the boxes themselves to be paint; therefore I laid all of the boxes next to each other and dripped paint onto them. This means that the only things holding these boxes together are the gestures from the gloss paint. The idea that the structure of the piece is completely reliant on the paint itself is intriguing as it means the paint doesn’t just have its visual uses, but it is important in holding the piece together.
This piece can be thought of as double-sided, as on one side is an Abstract Expressionist style piece and on the other is the repeated Diet Coke logo. The commercial Diet Coke label in repetition on the back of the painting immediately makes me think of Andy Warhol’s ‘Brillo Boxes’. I have combined these factory made boxes with a painting that is self-made. This has given the effect of one side of the piece being Pop art, and the other being Abstract Expressionist. I find the idea that two entirely different art movements can be seen within my piece almost like a joke, considering that the two movements are quite opposite. Why would anyone combine these two styles?

I have mentioned references to two art movements within my piece, and specifically the work of Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock. When you look at my piece from the front it immediately makes you think of Jackson Pollock’s work. The similarities lie within the fluid gestural marks, and the way that it is applied. Like me, Pollock applied his paint with a long stick, by dipping it into the buckets of paint and dripping it onto the canvas. He laid his canvas on the floor and painted from all four sides by what was almost like dancing around the piece. Pollock worked on a large canvas as he felt more at ease with a big area. Also like me, Pollock mainly uses black and white in quite a few of his pieces. I am quite interested in his play between the contrast of the black and the white. As the works are very chaotic, it would almost be sickly to use colour in the same way the black and white gestures are used.

It is quite clear that both my work and that of Jackson Pollock share a similar style, in the way that the paint is applied. What isn’t as clear is the back of my painting, which I believe has some importance to the piece as a whole. As I mentioned briefly earlier, the entire painting surface of my piece has been made up of Diet Coke boxes, and if my piece was to be turned over, the repeated Diet Coke logo would be seen. This reminds me very much of Andy Warhol’s ‘Brillo Boxes’ during the Pop art movement. The ‘Brillo Boxes’ are plywood boxes with the Brillo logo silk screened onto them. This work embraces American commercial culture by exhibiting ‘the familiar’. This machine-made look is a sharp contrast to the unique gestures of Pollock’s work.

If someone who had seen the work of Jackson Pollock’s work looked at my own, they would instantly recognise the dripping painting style, and this makes both sides of my work ‘the familiar’. Does this mean that the Pollock styled side is behaving in a Pop art manner? Both sides of the piece can also be linked together, using myself and my personal involvement with both sides as the link. When you look at each side the initial thought is that whereas I have an obvious physical involvement with the Pollock styled side, I have no personal involvement with the Diet Coke side. What many people don’t know is that I drink a lot of Diet Coke, and those boxes were collected after I had drank the contents. When you understand this, you could say that the two sides aren’t entirely contrasted after all, as I have had personal involvement with both sides of the piece.

My work initially started by trying to portray movement within dancers and landscapes by using the ‘drip technique’ found in the works of Jackson Pollock. As I began exploring the uses of different paints and the technique, my work began to get more abstract and the initial landscape became lost. As my work became more abstract, it started to gain more similarities to the work of Jackson Pollock, which is why I developed the raised areas of paint within my pieces. My work is double sided, and the painting surface is made up of Diet Coke boxes, which can be seen on the back of the work. By creating these two sides, I have compared the two elements from Clement Greenberg’s essay, “Avant-garde and Kitsch”. I think that it is almost like a joke to have these two elements within the same painting, as each side is reminiscent of two almost opposite art movements. I think it is a successful idea to portray these two styles back to back in my work, as the two movements happened very close to each other. I think that my work induces people to think about the two movements, and their relevance to each other.

Encounter with Richard Wilson's '20:50' at the Saatchi Gallery

When I first walked into the room and looked down over the small balcony, it appeared I was just staring into a space that had been darkened at the bottom. I then looked right over the balcony and saw my reflection, and then realised from the oil smell that this room was actually filled waist high with oil. This piece changes the perception of space, as it makes the room seem very large. The metal walkway almost seems like it is hovering within the space. I was mesmerised by this whole concept.

Jackson Pollock’s ‘Number 1 1948’

I was first drawn to Jackson Pollock’s ‘Number 1 1948’ for its hectic and chaotic look and feel. The paint appears to be thrown across the canvas quickly, which gives off a sense of energy and shows the movement involved in making the piece. I find that ‘Number 1 1948’ is a painting that as you look at it, you can almost picture it being made. I can imagine Jackson Pollock dancing around his canvas and throwing these marks across the room. In fact, in my mind I am instantly drawn back to an image of myself painting my own work, as I use to same sort of technique.

The thought of exploring the act of painting, exploring the flow of paint and its behaviour and the idea of opening the subconscious while painting intrigues me. Whether or not Jackson Pollock was doing this for definite I don’t know, but I do believe that ‘Number 1 1948’ is portraying this thought. I can look at this painting and admire the quality of the paint; the nature of the marks made and the exertion of Jackson Pollock’s physical energy while painting. I have noticed that the painting almost has its own rhythm and wondered whether Jackson Pollock subconsciously gives his paintings each a different rhythm in the marks. I am firmly in the belief that the act of painting is as important as the final product made; and therefore am attracted to this painting, as it is showing the energy that was put into it.

When we look at paintings, most of the time we forget that they are paintings. I think ‘Number 1 1948’ reminds us that it is a painting, as there isn’t really a subject matter but the movement of the paint itself. The handprints at the top of the piece reinforce the idea that this is just a painting. Also, I believe it shows that within a painting there is a connection to the artist. I think this painting as a whole does this, with the handprints along with the marks that make us connect with the process of painting. The gestures have been thrown across the canvas, trying to reach across it. In a way this is the same impression that the handprints give, as they are placed as if a person was reaching up across the canvas. This also reminds us of the size of the painting, as we can forget that this painting is quite big due to the larger sizes of some of Jackson Pollock’s other paintings. As well as being smaller than some of Pollock’s other paintings, this painting can also seem less controlled and more wild. The gestures are larger and more energetic.

I have been reading texts by different authors about Jackson Pollock and ‘Number 1 1948’ in particular. Two texts I have been interested in are T.J. Clark’s ‘The Unhappy Unconsciousness’ and Robert Rosenblum’s ‘The Abstract Sublime’. In ‘The Unhappy Unconsciousness’, T.J. Clark talks about ‘Number 1 1948’ in great detail. He believes ‘Number 1 1948’ to be a great painting, and the moment in modernism in which the forms and limits of depiction were laid out most completely. He also believes that the painting has a scale and velocity that leaves the world behind; something abstract expressionism has set out to do. There is so much energy put into this painting and velocity is achieved by this and the quickness of the marks made. A point that I can very much agree with is that ‘Number 1 1948’ is a “thrown” painting. The marks look as if they have been hurled across the canvas as fast and far and they can go; adding to the whole velocity and energy of the painting. T.J. Clark also states that in ‘Number 1 1948’ the line is “turned aside from it’s normal behaviour”. I find this to be true. The lines in Jackson Pollock’s paintings act differently from others.

T.J. Clark states that he believes ‘Number 1 1948’ has a histrionic quality. I believe that Jackson Pollock’s work is also about the process of making the pieces as well as the final paintings themselves. The histrionic quality of ‘Number 1 1948’ make the viewer almost visualise Jackson Pollock dancing around the piece as he throws marks across the canvas. It also gives off a certain physicality. T.J. Clark talks a lot about the handprints at the top of the painting, and how they are placed as if Jackson Pollock were reaching up as far as his arms would go. This reminds us that this is just a painting, and also the medium is forced upon us. T.J. Clark also goes on to say that the physical limits of painting are subsumed in a wild metaphysical dance and that the painting condenses a whole possibility of painting at a certain moment into two or three marks. The marks he is referring to are the large marks that look like they were probably the last to take place. Viewers tend not to look beyond the top layer of line in this painting.

In the second text I looked at, ‘The Abstract Sublime’, Robert Rosenblum talks about the sublime, and his theories on how it can be achieved. Rosenblum describes sublime as “an aesthetic category that suddenly acquires fresh relevance in the face of the most astonishing summits of pictorial heresy attained in America”. He says that the sublime can be achieved by things such as a greatness of dimension and unleashed power. ‘Number 1 1948’ certainly has that unleashed power in its whirlwind marks. The marks, according to Rosenblum, have superhuman turbulence that immediately plunge you into divine fury. He also says that magnitude can help produce the sublime. The size of ‘Number 1 1948’ is engulfing and you can get lost in its web of inexhaustible energy.

‘Number 1 1948’ was done during the Abstract Expressionism movement, which can sometimes be known as Action Painting. Action Painting became the designation under which new informal abstract art of the 1940s-1950s first became known in English language criticism. It then gradually became known as Abstract Expressionism. For Action Painters, nothing should get in the way of the act of painting. The canvas becomes an arena to act and becomes an event rather than just a painting. It gets meaning from its role as the painter acts. This makes the painting inseparable from the biography of the artist, as movement and painting comes from the subconscious. It can signify a ‘moment’ in his life. For me, action painting is about painting just to paint. Action Painting and Abstract Expressionism rely on spontaneity and haphazard effects.

Abstract Expressionism has many influences from Cubist work. In 1930s-1940s America, Matisse, Picasso, Mondrian and Leger were popular in New York. What was unrealised in Picasso became an important incentive for American painters, including Jackson Pollock. Jackson Pollock was very much a late cubist, according to Clement Greenberg. He was an easel painter to start with, and then began to be inspired by the work of Janet Sobel with their ‘all over’ feel. From Cubism you can see a gradual withdrawal from the task of representing reality. By the time we get to Abstract Expressionism, the paintings are just marks of paint and movement of the artists. There is also some influence from Surrealism, as the paintings are made from the subconscious.

The Abstract Expressionism movement started just after World War 2 and ‘Number 1 1948’ was created only a couple of years after the war had ended. The war might have had something to do with the sudden impatience and a refusal of values in art. The art became a gesture of liberation, and liberation from the object meant liberation from society and the art already there. Art became more free. In this way, Abstract Expressionism could be seen as avant-garde.

In Clement Greenberg’s writings, the avant-garde is an escape from ideas, a revolt against literature and an opposition to the bourgeois society. The avant-garde felt itself responsible only for the values of art. Clement Greenberg also talked about the avant-garde wanting to replicate the effects of music, as the advantage of music was that it was an ‘abstract’ art form; an art of ‘pure form’, which shows the physical quality of the medium. You can see this in ‘Number 1 1948’, as it shows the physical quality of paint. Clement Greenberg was a critic who saw Jackson Pollock’s style of painting as a ‘pure form’, as it had a primitive feeling, like children’s art and oriental art do. Clement Greenberg believes that the avant-garde detaches itself from society and keeps culture moving in the midst of an ideological confusion. This was the role that Abstract Expressionism and ‘Number 1 1948’ played at the end of the second World War.

I believe that ‘Number 1 1948’ may have played a significant role in the Cold War as a symbolism for freedom. Stalinists found Abstract Expressionist art hard to use for propaganda, but America used this kind of art as a symbol for freedom in a capitalist society. This was because the artists were American and the art had free movement and paintings free of subject matters.

Fourth encounter with Jackson Pollock's 'Summertime Number 9A' at 'Tate Modern'

Here I stand in front of Jackson Pollock’s ‘Summertime Number 9A’ for the fourth time. This piece is still buzzing at me and giving off so much energy. These bold gestures sweep across the canvas in such a rhythmic way, and almost feels like the action is on a loop. The gestures feel so fluid and have a signature look about them. Looking at these marks, I can feel the kind of movement that Jackson Pollock would have had to make with his arm and body to get this result. The dance-like movement that Jackson Pollock would of made to create this painting shows through the marks, as they themselves look like they are dancing too.

Third encounter with Jackson Pollock's 'Summertime Number 9A'

On my third encounter , I realised yet again that there were parts of this piece that I hadn’t noticed on the first and second encounter. This time, I realised there were purples and reds in the piece, hiding behind the blues and the large gestures. My attention also was drawn yet again to the large gestures. These fluid marks now appear to be more controlled than I first thought. I have been working on the drip technique in my own work, and discovered that you can have great control over these marks. As I stared at this painting I started to see dancing figure-like shapes from the marks.

Review of the Rothko exhibition at Tate Modern

In 1958 Rothko was commissioned to paint a series of murals for the Four Seasons restaurant. He started this work in a studio that he had just rented that would allow him to simulate the proportions of the dining room. Eventually, Rothko withdrew from the commission. In 1960, the director of the Tate Gallery discussed with Rothko the possibility of displaying a group of the murals. He provided Rothko with a small paper maquette of the space so that he could decide where he would like his paintings to be hanged. This maquette can be seen in the first room of the exhibition. Rothko had never decided on a final order of the paintings, but he did want the Seagram Murals to be hung high, slightly apart, and with a warm background colour.

The Seagram Murals are at the centre of the exhibition, and displayed in the largest room. This includes eight paintings from the Tate’s own collection and a selection from Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, Sakura and the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The five paintings that Rothko identified as ‘Mural’ are displayed in consecutive order here. These paintings are hung quite high, as Rothko requested, and are shown in a dim, yet warm light. This light adds to the vibrant and sombre colour. Standing in this room you feel almost overwhelmed and amazed by the surrounding paintings. As you stand in front of one of them, you get the sense that you could be inside the painting. As you move further away from a painting, the ‘floating frame’ would get either more or less visible due to the light in the room.

The next room shows Rothko’s technique through photos of a painting that have been place under UV light. These show the individual layers that Rothko applied, and where he reworked his paintings. This sheds more light onto the process of his painting as Rothko never liked to be watched while working, and photographs of him in his studio show him looking at a painting rather than actively taking part in it. Saying this, Rothko did leave clues in his work, such as the drips around the paintings, showing that they had been rotated and worked on from different angles.

The next significant room is the sixth room, where the black form paintings are displayed. Rothko had named the black form paintings numbers one to eight, and number five curiously appeared twice. At a first glance, the paintings look solid black, but as you look closer you can see that there has been a build up of colour and there is a frame around a black middle. These paintings invite the viewer to take a closer look at these paintings. This room, like many of the others, is laid out so that the paintings surround the viewer, which is something that was important to Rothko.

In another room is Rothko’s Brown on Gray works, which show two fields of colour. To make these, Rothko had taped large pieces of paper onto wooden boards. When he was done, he would remove the tape, which would reveal the unpainted areas. Nearby there are also some of his works on paper to compare to. The last room of the exhibition is home to Rothko’s Black on Gray works, his last series. These consist of a dark upper and a light lower section. There is a painted white edge around these paintings, which is different from his other works in which he would stretch the colour all the way round the wooden frame. This white edge makes a flatter picture plane. Another difference to this series is that the paintings vary in size and orientation, which gives them each a unique scale and weight

As each room contains a different series of Rothko’s works, they give out and invoke a different kind of atmosphere. Each room is packed with viewers trying to view his work and somewhere in this bustle, we as reviewers have to nestle ourselves and cancel the rush of people in order to get a deeper feel of the work in the gallery space. You do get a certain gratification once the lighting and gallery space fuses with the Rothko works.

Overall after getting over the sheer amazement of Rothko’s canvases, boards and not to forget the large amount of visitors that Rothko still gets everyday, you leave gallery with a greater understating and appreciation.

Second Encounter of Jackson Pollock's 'Summertime Number 9A'

Viewing this painting a second time, the first thing that struck me was the length of it. On my first encounter I had been so absorbed by the large drip-like gestures that it hadn’t come to mind the odd size if the painting. It’s not the general kind of rectangle canvas, but instead isn’t very tall at all, but is extremely long lengthways. It reminds me of a letterbox shape. One other thing I hadn’t really paid much attention to the first time was the smaller marks. There were small green marks all over the painting. Also, I began to notice the grey dripped gestures beneath the black ones. As I stood there looking at this amazing piece, I had just noticed that this painting had more layers than I cared to notice on my first encounter.