At the Abstract Expressionism talk on Sunday 11/7, I felt a variety of emotions from these works of art. Deborah Goldberg was my gallery speaker. We focused mainly on works by Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, with the inclusion of a few other works done by Pollock’s wife Lee Krasner, William Rubin, Philip Guston, and William de Kooning. The exhibit was much different than the classic art we have looked at in class. It had no real subject, no relation to titles of the artwork, lots of lines and geometry, lots of dripping and was carefree. I really did not get Barnett Newman’s zip paintings. I liked how his point was to show that different colors pop out while others recede in a painting, and I definitely saw that in Heroic Sublime Man (featured below). However, it is not something I could see myself analyzing for a long time, and it was not something that I was very fond of. I could not get connected to it, I could not see what Deborah said how the lines were potentially people, and I was slightly bothered that something that seemed so simple was displayed in a museum. This made me realize that art has different definitions to each individual. I still like modern art, but I think I am more attracted to the more recent pop-art instead. After talking to other classmates I realized that the gallery was so large that each speaker focused on different paintings for each talk so each of us experienced different pieces. I saw some pieces in my wandering that caught my eye so maybe if I attended another talk I would relate to those better.
A painting I did like was Jackson Pollock’s One Number 31, 1950. It was large and contained so many lines and drips and colors. I definitely understood why he was known as Jack the Dripper after looking at this painting. I liked how the painting was large and all a consistent pattern so it was as if it was growing or engulfing me as the viewer. The colors fit together and made looking into the picture seem like I was looking into static on a TV, into a mass of nothingness. I also liked imagining how he painted it, leaning over the canvas on the floor, making painting the chaotic picture like a dance and a strenuous exercise, which seemed to work together.
-Nicole Lennon
