Pollock’s paintings are considered as action paintings, which is a type of ‘abstract expressionism’.
Not only his paintings but also his style of painting was typical and untraditional. He used to spread the canvas on the floor and directly splashed paints on it and then with the help of rapid and hasty brush applications, completed the painting. He sed all odd things like towel, paint cans with holes in the bottom, sticks, knives etc. to apply paint. He found Indian sand painting quite fascinating because here also sands of different colors were used by directly spreading on the ground and giving them shape loosely by hand.
He used his instincts while painting and even stepped on his painting to get real footprint effects.Jackson Pollock is very well know for his unique style of painting and is considered as ‘abstract expressionist’. He worked in his own exceptional and innovative style of expressing his art. Pollock’s paintings are referred as ‘action’ or ‘gesture’ paintings. Pollock developed a style of painting not known till that time which later on came to be known as ‘drip’ painting, so much so that ‘Time Magazine’ in 1956 termed him as “Jack the Dripper”.
Harold Rosenberg wrote in his famous article in ARTnews, “What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event.The big moment came when it was decided to paint ‘just to paint’. The gesture on the canvas was a gesture of liberation from value – political, aesthetic, moral. ” Instead of using the traditional way of painting he developed his own way. He used to spread the canvas on the floor and painted with rapid and impetuous brush strokes and sometimes splashed paint directly on it. He believed in unorthodox way of painting and poured the paint straight away on the canvas to get spontaneous effect.
He literally stepped on some of his paintings to get exact footprint affect.He was concerned with expressing his emotions rather than trying to get a real look in the picture and used to immerse himself fully in his art. Pollock’s art was equally praised and criticized because he believed in spontaneous flow of emotions and paint and while fulfilling this he broke many traditional rules of painting. He developed a mood of introspection and reflection, which was because of the reaction after seeing the real picture of man and mankind after World War II.
All these things and their effects were depicted in his paintings.
