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.