JACKSON POLLOCK, his quotes on his art, life and Drip painting;+ biography facts
Jackson Pollock (1912 -1956), artist quotes of the (Drip) painter in American Abstract Expressionism on art and life + biography facts. All painters of Abstract Expressionism in New York recognized Pollock as major leading figure in the development of American modern art. He was the first artist who used the drip method (Jack the Dripper) to create paintings in a energetic and unconscious way; ‘She Wolf’ ‘Lavender Mist’ and the series ‘Blue Poles’ has become his most famous drip paintings. At the bottom some useful art links for the artist Jackson Pollock, married with woman artist Lee Krasner till his death in 1956. – the editor.
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Jackson Pollock: ‘She-Wolf’, painting 1943 |
Jackson Pollock, artist quotes on modern art – leading painter in American Abstract Expressionism
– I can control the flow of paint; there is no accident…
* source, famous American people life quotes: “Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner”, Ines Janet Engelmann, Prestel Verlag Munich, 2007, p. 54 (American painter artist Jackson Pollock: his quotes and statements about life & creating modern art in Abstract Expressionism)
– I am nature (reacting on the artist Hofmann who visited Pollock’s studio and said him: You do not work from nature. This is no good, you will repeat yourself. You work by heart, not from nature.…
* source, famous American people life quotes: “Jackson Pollock”, Ellen G Landau, p. 259; as quoted in “Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner”, Ines Janet Engelmann, Prestel Verlag Munich, 2007, p. 66.
– …people have always frightened and bored me, consequently I have been within my own shell… (1929, fh) …
* source, famous American people life quotes: ”Abstract Expressionism” David Anfam, Thames and Hudson Ltd London, 1990, p. 30.
– My work with Benton (his first painter teacher, fh) was important as something against which to react very strongly, later on; in this, it was better to have worked with him than with a less resistant personality who would have provided a much less strong opposition. At the same time Benton introduced me to Renaissance art…
* source, famous American people life quotes: ”Art and Architecture” Vol. 61 no. 2, February 1944; as quoted in ”Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics”, p. 137, ed. Clifford Ross, Abrahams Publishers, New York 1990.
-…I have a definite feeling for the West, the vast horizontality of the land, for instance… …I have always been very impressed with the plastic qualities of American Indian art. The Indians have the true painter’s approach in their capacity to get hold of appropriate images, and in their understanding of what constitutes painterly subject-matter. Their colour is essentially Western, their vision has the basic universality of all real art. Some people find references to American Indian art and calligraphy in parts of my pictures. That wasn’t intentional; probably (it) was the result of early memories and enthusiasm…
* source, famous American people life quotes: ”Art and Architecture” Vol. 61 no. 2, February 1944; as quoted in ”Twentieth-century American painting”, Gail Levin, The Thyssen-Bornemisza collection. London, 1987, p. 267.
– I accept the fact that the important painting of the last hundred years was done in France. American painters have generally missed the point of modern painting from beginning to end… …Thus the fact that good European moderns (European artists who lived in the U.S., escaping the Nazi-regime, fh) are now here is very important, for they bring with them an understanding of the problems of modern painting. I am particularly impressed with their concept of the source of art being the unconscious. These idea interests me more than these specific artists do, for the two artists I admire most, Picasso and Miró, are still abroad…
* source, famous American people life quotes: ”Art and Architecture” Vol. 61 no. 2, February 1944; as quoted in ”Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics”, p. 138, ed. Clifford Ross, Abrahams Publishers, New York, 1990.
– The idea of an isolated American painting, so popular in this country during the thirties, seems absurd to me, just as the idea of a purely American mathematics or physics would seem absurd… …And in another sense, the problem doesn’t exist at all; or, if it did, would solve itself: An American is an American and his painting would naturally be qualified by the fact, whether he wills or not. But the basic problems of contemporary painting are independent of any one country…
* source, famous American people life quotes: ”Art and Architecture” Vol. 61, no. 2, February 1944; as quoted in ”Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics”, p. 138, ed. Clifford Ross, Abrahams Publishers, New York, 1990.
– ‘She Wolf’ came into existence because I had to paint it. Any attempt on my part to say something about it, to attempt an explanation of the inexplicable, could only destroy it. (1947, fh…
* source, famous American people life quotes: ‘Jackson Pollock’, Ellen G Landau; as quoted in ‘Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner’, Ines Janet Engelmann, Prestel Verlag Munich, 2007, p. 27.
– My painting does not come from the easel. I hardly ever stretch my canvas before painting. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally ”be” in the painting. This is akin to the method of the Indian sand painters of the West.…
* source, famous American people life quotes: ‘Possibilities Vol. 1’, no 1; as quoted in Quoted in “Jackson Pollock: is he the greatest living painter in the United States?” ”Life” (1949-08-08), pp. 42-45.
– I believe easel painting to be a dying form, and the tendency of modern feeling is toward the wall picture or mural…
* source, famous American people life quotes: his application for a grant given by the Guggenheim Foundation 1944; as quoted in ‘Abstract expressionism’ Barbara Hess, Taschen Köln, 2006, p. 9
– Energy and motion made visible – memories arrested in space. (around 1948-’49, fh) …
* source, famous American people life quotes: ”Abstract Expressionism”, David Anfam, Thames and Hudson Ltd London, 1990, p. 121.
– When I am in‘ my painting, I am not aware of what I’m doing. It is only after a short of ‘get acquainted’ period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.…
* source, famous American people life quotes: ‘Possibilities’, Vol. 1, no 1, winter 1947-48; as quoted in ”Jackson Pollock”, Elizabeth Frank, New York, 1983, p. 68.
– Modern art to me is nothing more than the expression of contemporary aims of the age we’re living in… …All cultures have had means and techniques of expressing their immediate aims – the Chinese, the Renaissance, all cultures. The thing that interests me is that today painters do not have to go to a subject matter outside of themselves. Most modern painters work from a different source, they work from within…
* source, famous American people life quotes: interview by William Wright, Summer 1950 (meant for broadcasting, but never used, fh); as quoted in ”Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics”, ed. Clifford Ross, Abrahams Publishers, New York 1990, p. 140.
– It seems to me that the modern painter cannot express his age, the airplane the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of Renaissance or of any past culture. Each age finds its own technique.…
* source, famous American people life quotes: interview by William Wright, Summer 1950 (meant for broadcasting, but never used, fh); as quoted in ”Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics”, ed. Clifford Ross, Abrahams Publishers, New York 1990, p. 17.
– I think they (the public) should not look for, but look passively – and try to receive what the painting has to offer and not bring a subject matter or preconceived idea of what they are to be looking for… …and I think the unconsciousness drives do mean a lot in looking at paintings… …I think it should enjoyed just as music is enjoyed – after a while you may like it or you may not. But it doesn’t seem to be too serious. I like some flowers, and others, other flowers I don’t like. I think at least it gives – at least give it a chance. …
* source, famous American people life quotes: interview by William Wright, Summer 1950 (meant for broadcasting, but never used, fh); as quoted in ”Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics”, ed. Clifford Ross, Abrahams Publishers, New York 1990, pp. 139-140.
– The modern artist is living in a mechanical age and we have a mechanical means of representing objects in nature such as the camera and photograph. The modern artist, it seems to me, is working and expressing an inner world – in other words – expressing the energy, the motion and the other inner forces… …the modern artist is working with space and time, and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating…
* source, famous American people life quotes: interview by William Wright, Summer 1950 (meant for broadcasting, but never used, fh); as quoted in ”Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics”, ed. Clifford Ross, Abrahams Publishers, New York 1990, pp. 139-140.
– Well, method is, it seems to me, a natural growth out of a need, and from a need the modern artist has found new ways of expressing the world about him. I happen to find ways that are different from the usual techniques, which seems a little strange at the moment, but I don’t think there’s anything very different about it. I paint on the floor and this isn’t unusual – the Orientals did that…
* source, famous American people life quotes: interview by William Wright, Summer 1950 (meant for broadcasting, but never used, fh); as quoted in ”Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics”, ed. Clifford Ross, Abrahams Publishers, New York 1990, pp. 142-143.
– Most of the paint I use is a liquid, flowing kind of paint. The brushes I use are more a sticks rather than brushes – the brush doesn’t touch the surface on the canvas, it’s just above… …(so) I am able to be more free and to have greater freedom and move about the canvas, with greater ease…
* source, famous American people life quotes: interview by William Wright, Summer 1950 (meant for broadcasting, but never used, fh); as quoted in ”Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics”, ed. Clifford Ross, Abrahams Publishers, New York 1990, p. 144.
– …with experience it seems to be possible to control the flow of paint, to a great extent, and I don’t use – I don’t use the accident – ‘cause I deny the accident… …it’s quite different from working, say, from a still life where you set up objects and work directly from them. I do have a general notion of what I’m about and what the results will be. I approach painting in the same sense as one approaches drawing, that is, it’s direct…
* source, famous American people life quotes: interview by William Wright, Summer 1950 (meant for broadcasting, but never used, fh); as quoted in ”Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics”, ed. Clifford Ross, Abrahams Publishers, New York 1990, p. 144.
– I don’t work from drawings and colour sketches into a final painting. Painting, I think, today – the more immediate, the more direct – the greater the possibilities of making a direct – of making a statement…
* source, famous American people life quotes: interview by William Wright, Summer 1950 (meant for broadcasting, but never used, fh); as quoted in ”Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics”, ed. Clifford Ross, Abrahams Publishers, New York 1990, p. 144.
– Well, painting today certainly seems very vibrant, very alive, very exiting. Five or six of my contemporaries around New York are doing very vital work, and the direction that painting seems to be taken here – is – away from the easel – into some sort, some kind of wall, wall painting (he did earlier on real streetwalls, in the WPA, fh)…
* source, famous American people life quotes: interview by William Wright, Summer 1950 (meant for broadcasting, but never used, fh); as quoted in ”Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics”, ed. Clifford Ross, Abrahams Publishers, New York 1990, p. 144.
– Naturally, the result is the thing (the painting, fh) and it doesn’t make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement. …
* source, famous American people life quotes: interview by William Wright, Summer 1950 (meant for broadcasting, but never used, fh); as quoted in ”Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics”, ed. Clifford Ross, Abrahams Publishers, New York 1990, p. 145.
– Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn’t have any beginning or any end. He didn’t meant it as a compliment, but it was. It was a fine compliment. Only he didn’t know it.
* source, famous American people life quotes: ‘Unframed Space’, interview with Berton Roueché, ‘The New Yorker’,1950-08-05; as quoted in ”The Grove Book of Art Writing: Brilliant Words on Art from Pliny the Elder to Damien Hirst, ” ed. Martin Gayford and Karen Wright, p. 546.
– I’ve had a period of drawing on canvas in black – with some of my early images coming thru -, think the non-objectivists will find them disturbing – and the kids who think it simple to splash a Pollock out.
* source, famous American people life quotes: a letter to Alfonso Ossorio and Edward Dragon, 1951; as quoted in “Abstract Expressionism”, David Anfam, Thames and Hudson Ltd London, 1990, p. 175.
– The thing that interests me is that today painters do not have to go to a subject-matter outside themselves. Modern painters work in a different way. They work from within. (1951, radio interview)
* source, famous American people life quotes: “Lives of the great twentieth century artists”, Edward Lucie-Smith, London, 1986, p. 263.
– I don’t care for ‘abstract expressionism’… …and it is certainly not ‘non-objective’, and not ‘non-representational’ either. I’m very representational some of the time, and a little all of the time. But when you’re painting out of your consciousness, figures are bound to emerge. We’re all of us influenced by Freud, I guess. I’ve been a Jungian for a long time… …Painting is a state of being… …Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.
* source, famous American people life quotes: interview in 1956 “Conversations with Artists”, by Seldon Rodman, New York, Capricorn Books, 1961, pp. 84-85.
– The important thing is that Clyff Still (the abstract painter Clyfford Still, fh) – you know his work? – and Rothko, and I – we’ve changed the nature of painting… …I don’t mean there aren’t any other good painters. Bill (Willem the Kooning) is a good painter, but he’s a ‘’French’’ painter. I told him so, the last time I saw him after his last show… …all those pictures in his last show start with an image. You can see it even though he’s covered it up, or tried to… …Style – that’s the French part of it. He has to cover it up with style… (1956, answering Seldon Rodman’s question, fh)
* source, famous American people life quotes: “Conversations with Artists”, by Seldon Rodman, New York, Capricorn Books, 1961, pp. 84-85.
art links for more biography information and life facts of Jackson Pollock, called Jack the Dripper
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* American famous painter Jackson Polloc,k in the MOMA museum: with pictures of his paintings
