Jackson Pollock and Marxism
by A look at the work of famous American artist Jackson Pollock and its relation to Socialist and Marxist art theories.
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The role of Jackson Pollock in twentieth century art is an important one. As arguably the most prominent figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940s and 1950s, his work has had an effect and influence (either directly or through reactions against it) on most art movements which came after it, including pop art, neo-Dadaism and contemporary painting. Here I will look at the relationship between Abstract Expressionism and theories of Marxist modern art using Pollock’s Blue Poles: Number 11 (1952) as an example of the movement, which will take me into discussions relating to the exclusive nature of the modern art world and the use of Pollock’s work as capitalist propaganda during a key stage of the Cold War. I will start by giving a background to Jackson Pollock and his role in establishing Abstract Expressionism.
Pollock revolutionised American painting with his technique of application, in which he dripped, splashed and poured paint onto a large canvas on the floor, eschewing traditional methods of application such as the paintbrush (although he did use paintbrushes to drip and flick paint, the brush never touched the canvas) and the practice of using an easel. Beginning his career as a Regionalist Social-Realist painter under the teaching of Thomas Hart Benton in the early 1930s, Pollock began to switch to his unconventional style in around 1938 and his personal style had been established by around 1947. This style earned him the nickname of “Jack the Dripper” (Time Magazine, 20th Feb 1956) in media circles, and through his process of making paintings in this way he moved away from figurative representation, his methods helping to establish one of the first specifically American art movements to achieve worldwide influence, Abstract Expressionism.
Coming out of New York during the years of World War II, the movement got its name due to it being seen to combine the self-expression and emotional intensity of the German Expressionists with the non representational art of certain European abstract movements, such as Futurism. Pollock’s frenetic, unconventional methods within the style led to Harold Rosenberg coining the phrase “action painting” (sometimes called “gestural abstraction”), as Pollock would use his whole body to paint. Here Pollock gives an account of his methods:
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