An Encore of Pollock

Being most familiar Pollock over Madonna and Spiderman, I return to him and his artwork with Freud and Foucault for analysis. Freud explored the unconscious as the source of the works of art produced by artists, which becomes evident in Pollock’s work. Pollock did something revolutionary in the art world with his drip paintings. His work appears to be a chaotic mess of paint with maybe some order in the patterns with different colors. Although Freud expressed that artists somehow manipulate daydreams into tangible works of art that are enjoyed by the audience, Pollock was not simply expressing daydreams. Rather, Pollock gets down to a fundamental unconscious state in which there appears total chaos; yet, there is a slight discernable order to the layers and patterns of colors. During Freud’s time in the 19th century, there was more of a realistic sense instead of abstract sense to works of art. With increasing abstraction, artwork closes in on raw unconscious thought. These works of art are not exactly something the audience can relate to like daydreams. Pollock captures almost a natural rhythm, as indicated by Richard Taylor in his fractal analysis of Pollock paintings. I think Freud would find an explicit example of a glimpse of unconscious thought in Pollock’s drip paintings.

When Pollock was producing his drip paintings, they formed a completely new and strange branch of the art spectrum. Although not really intentional, Pollock challenged the elite definitions of what were acceptable pieces of art. Similar to Velazquez’s work Las Meninas, Foucault may have observed Pollock’s paintings as a true, purer form of art, since it stretched the boundaries of acceptable works of art. Pollock went against the grain of American power, order, and norms. He drank excessively and did art exactly the way he wanted to do it. He sold his art to whoever would buy it and did not make paintings with the audience’s expectations in mind. From Foucault’s perspective, Pollock challenged the established order of society. He expanded the knowledge of the art world and provoked questions of what can be accepted as art. Pollock was necessary to help prevent art at the time from becoming stagnant, predictable and comfortable within established limits. According to Foucault, perhaps artists like Pollock are the purest artists, because they challenge the order, power, and knowledge of societies.