On November 2, 2006, the New York Times carried the news that The American Abstract Expressionist painter Pollock's Opus 5 (1948) sold for $140 million, breaking the auction record for the world's most expensive painting. As soon as the news came out, the media of various countries competed to reprint it, setting off another round of Pollock boom.
Opus 5 Pollock 1948 Oil paint, magnetic paint 243.8cm× 121.9cm
For a time, pollock was talked about everywhere, and his artistic value, his explosiveness, and his outstanding originality are still admired by today's artists and critics more than half a century after his death. However, Pollock, who created a sky-high work, was ridiculed and lonely during his lifetime. Pollock was always on the run for his livelihood, on the road to art, and never enjoyed a rich, comfortable life. He was a lone traveler in this world, a hurried passer-by in the vast wilderness.
Born on January 28, 1912 in Cody, Wyoming, as if by God's arrangement, Jackson Jr. announced to the world that he was almost twice as tall as an average newborn. At that time, a newspaper in Cody specifically reported: "The Roys in this town are happy to add a son on Sunday." The little one weighed 12.25 pounds at birth and was the fifth son of this happy family. In fact, this "happy family" is really a poor home. At Jackson's 10 months, his father contracted rheumatism and needed to move to a place with a warm climate. So the family began a wandering trip without a home, San Diego, Phoenix, Chico, Janisville, they moved from state to state, until 1924, after many trips, and finally moved to North Angelis, California.
During this time, Jackson's father ran away from home to earn a living as a land surveyor for the U.S. Highway Administration; his half-brother Challis entered Otis College, the most prestigious art school in the West. In 1923, her mother, Stella, took her four brothers to visit Charlis, and from then on, "being an artist like Charlis" became Jackson's goal in life.
Jackson Pollock was reclusive and stubborn by nature, which made his adolescence more bumpy than other peers. He was expelled from school twice, and it was thanks to his mother's efforts that he was able to return to school to continue his studies. In September 1930, Pollock came to New York with challis, the eldest brother who was already studying at the Art Students' Union, to become a student of Thomas Hart Benton. This young man with a frenzied personality and a fragile heart was deeply favored by the Bentons, and in the years of getting along, the Bentons gave Pollock the kind of parental care. Throughout the 1930s, in addition to Benton, Jackson's work was influenced by the American painter Ryder, the Mexican muralists Sigeros and Orosco, especially Sigeros's free use of materials and new techniques. However, the artist who had a decisive influence on Pollock was Picasso. Ever since he saw Guernica in the exhibition in May 1939, he began to "dialogue" and "competition" with Picasso, and gradually found a personal style with a certain originality in tireless experimentation. During this period, Pollock joined some of the symbols of Indian and Inuit art, an application of tribal elements that attracted the attention of the painter and critic John Graham, who wanted to "re-establish the unconscious contact with the past primitive humans," and sent him an invitation to participate in the "American and French Oil Paintings" exhibition on 55th Street in November 1941. The exhibition gives Pollock's work the opportunity to be put together with the work of Picasso and Henri Matisse. Other American artists who participated in the exhibition were willemde Kooning and Lee Klassner, who were also unknown at the time. Lee Krasner, a student of Hans Hoffman and had never heard of Pollock before, approached her and became acquainted with the "genius painter" (the two were officially married on 25 October 1945). In later days, recommending Pollock to her friends in the art world became her main job, de Kunin, Greenberg, Hoffman... Thanks to Lee's efforts, Pollock's social circle gradually expanded. In the fall of 1942, at the recommendation of Robert Motherwell, Pollock established contact with European Surrealist artists who had taken refuge in the United States, and thus became acquainted with Peggy Guggenheim, the "American hostess of European exiled artists". In fact, at first Peggy was not sure of Pollock's work, and at the exhibition for her "Spring Salon for Young Artists" selection, the judge Piet Cornelies Mondrian quietly stopped in front of a painting pollock had handed over, and then quietly said to Peggy, who was uneasy because of his silence: "This work is probably the most exciting painting I have ever seen here or in Europe in a long time." Mondrian's affirmation gave Peggy a reassuring pill, and sure enough, Pollock became the only one among the more than 30 participating painters to receive media attention.
As a result, the "Spring Salon for Young Artists" exhibition was seen as an important turning point in Pollock's life. Because after this, Peggy not only signed a contract with Pollock, but also began to hold his first solo exhibition for him. From 9 to 29 November 1943, Pollock's first solo exhibition was held as scheduled at Peggy's Gallery of The Art of the Century, and although none of the works were sold, they attracted critical acclaim. In the years that followed, the Gallery of the Century held a second, third, and fourth solo exhibition for Pollock, but with the exception of Greenberg, critics were almost critical.
In May 1947, Peggy moved to Europe and transferred the gallery to Betty Parkinson, but Parkinson refused to accept Pollock's work and Peggy's contract with Pollock, promising poles an exhibition opportunity.
In the summer of 1947, Pollock began the creation of "drip paintings", which were basically composed of dense lines that were thrown away from the shackles of the single function of describing or interpreting objects, and their unique rhythm and tension made the whole picture present new aesthetic characteristics. In the January 1948 exhibition held by Parsons Gallery for Pollock and Lee, the "drip paintings" debuted, but the social response once again deeply disappointed Pollock, during which only one work was sold, and the rest of the works were packaged and shipped to Peggy, who lived in Venice, after the exhibition. That same year, Peggy hung 6 of Pollock's works in the hall of her own Venice Biennale. Pollock's maverick art immediately shook the European art world, and although he was still the object of ridicule and ridicule in the United States, in Europe he was already known as the best American painter.
With Pollock's success in Europe, the American media also changed their attitude toward him. Several solo exhibitions held by Parsons Gallery (January 1949 to the end of 1951) began to be well received by some media outlets, with interviews with him published by Life and Art News magazines in August 1949 and July 1950, respectively, and film documentaries were made for him from 1950 to 1951, and in a very short time Pollock became the most famous artist. However, just when almost everyone accepted the most typical Pollock style of "drip painting", his creation changed again: the specific image reappeared in the composition, and only black and brown were used in color. The lifeless human head and limbs emerge in a black web of threads, and the violent themes of his early works seem to be awakened again, which may be the painter's unconscious recognition and revelation of human sin. The "black paintings" created in the summer of 1951 were exhibited at Parsons Gallery in December of the same year, but they did not have the desired effect, and some even saw this "return" as a sign of his personal artistic decline. In May 1952, Pollock withdrew from Parsons Gallery and instead signed a contract with Sydney Janis Gallery. Color then returned to his work, and in November Pollock's 11th solo exhibition was held at the Janis Gallery, and despite rave reviews, only one of the 12 works on display sold [Op. 8 (1952)]. After that, Pollock deliberately carried out comprehensive experiments and explorations in the art form, but it was difficult to get out of the repetition of himself. Deeply desperate, Pollock decided to give up the struggle and put the pen to rest after creating the last two works in 1955.
Just when Pollock was suffering from the hopelessness of innovation and the lack of passion and gave up creation, his reputation in the art world soared and soared. In February 1956, one of Pollock's admirers, 25-year-old schoolgirl Ruth Klingman, broke into his life. Ruth's youthful breath and flamboyant personality give Pollock new hope, and the two quickly enter and exit pairs, like glue. Pollock's unscrupulous betrayal deeply hurt Lee, who had long supported and cared for her, and with the encouragement of her friends, she temporarily left the sad land for a vacation in Europe. As soon as she left, Pollock rushed to get Ruth into the house in the hope of staying with her. However, the good times are not long, there is no adoration and infatuation without distance, and Pollock in real life is just a bald old man who has lost his creativity. Deeply disappointed, Ruth soon tires of living with him, she's not Lee, she doesn't want to accommodate, she has to leave. So tragedy happened, on the evening of August 10, 1956, Pollock drove with Ruth and one of her girlfriends on the way back to Sprees' house, the car drove faster and faster, in the pleasure of speed, Pollock seemed to be running towards a moving vortex, and in the screams of the two women, he did not hesitate to rush towards the center of the whirlpool... The car crashed into a tree on the side of the road, and Pollock and the friend were killed on the spot, and Ruth survived. Ruth's "love" only ignited Pollock's physical desire as a man, but could not rekindle his creative passion, and Ruth, who was in her youth, did not find the happiness she longed for, but almost became the "prey" Pollock's martyrdom.
In fact, Pollock was not only a "genius painter", but also a "senior drunkard". His history of alcoholism is almost entangled with his painting career, and the treatment of psychologists and the care of his loved ones can not completely get him out of anxiety and depression, so his seemingly accidental final madness is a way for him to find a way to relieve his long-term overwhelmed spirit. Pollock, who squandered his life and did not grow old, resolutely ran to his final destination. He was 44 years old.
After Pollock's death, the Museum of Modern Art held a major retrospective for him. As a master of Abstract Expressionism, his paintings continued to rise and reach new highs, but all this Pollock had no way of knowing. He chose to leave prematurely, just to escape loneliness and no longer suffer.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > This article is excerpted from Subversion and Construction: Interpretation of Western Modern and Contemporary Art, by Li Liyang, CITIC Publishing House</h1>
Western Modern and Contemporary Art Interpretation ¥78 Purchase