Reflection: Abstract Expressionism

So what have a learnt after my visit?

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Royal Academy: Abstract Expressionism

After my previous consideration of Jackson Pollock then a major Abstract Expressionism seemed to be an opportunity that I shouldn’t skip. There is a lot of work here, much of it by Jackson Pollock – including some of his most famous pieces. This was an opportunity to really try to engage with the concepts.

Grayson Perry: The Vanity of Small Differences

This was being exhibited at a local Gallery, so I decided to go along to have a look. The work has been fairly extensively documented, and so I won’t attempt to describe it in detail here. Suffice it to say that there are 6 tapestries and  wealth of background information to view and consider.

Book: High Art as marketing

Carrying on from my consideration of Jackson Pollock and medium use in “Modernism in Dispute” [Wood, 1993]. The “High Art” discussion around p172 is slightly harder to put in context:

…the works of Louise and Noland … look like this because this is how painting must be made to look, c. 1960, if they are to offer the viewer sufficient degree of aesthetic power…”

Book: Art as a materials study

Carrying on from my consideration of Jackson Pollock and Modern Art in “Modernism in Dispute” [Wood, 1993]. I found the statement, p172, about Saraband (Plate 140) and Bloom (Plate 141) being painted within a year of each other, and one or two years before the first publication of ‘Modernist Painting’:

The two works… are painted in acrylics. Unlike Oils acrylics will retain a high degree of saturation in relatively liquid form … both paintings which exploit the properties of what was at the time a relatively new medium.

Book: Modernism in Dispute and Jackson Pollock

I bought “Modernism in Dispute” [Wood, 1993], as it is a set book and I’m interested in “What is Modern Art about anyway?” I’ve never exactly had a love affair with modern art. Jackson Pollock (e.g. “War”, Plate 123) is deemed to be a great artist – but I just don’t engage with his work.

Maybe there are clothes there

I have been browsing the OCA website and ran into Sue Gilmore’s blog related to willow and the use of it as a “Performance piece”: