The Rediscovery of Jackson Pollock

I have recently started watching a series of lectures by UC Berkeley Practice of Art from Spring 2011 edition. In his lecture Introduction to Visual Thinking Professor John S. McNamara has asked the class (of probably freshmen, mostly American students) whether they know and like Jackson Pollock. Those, who “really respond to his work” were “a small number of a small number”. I felt some disappointment in the speaker’s voice, so probably to somehow justify such a low awareness the lecturer added that Pollock is “a very hard artist to understand”.

Myself, I have been first introduced to Pollock back in 2004 when as a Business major student, I was also allowed to take art studio classes at Baskin Visual Arts Center that turned into the brightest memories of my entire year at UCSC. Professor Frank Galuszka was very passionate about Pollock and his dripping technique, but at that time I was more into Kandinsky basing my paintings on his color theory after reading Concerning the Spiritual in Art 1910 book. 

The rediscovery of Jackson Pollock happened back in early October 2013 thanks to Pollock and The Irascibles – The New York School at Palazzo Reale, a part of Autunno Americano cultural project that brought Whitney Museum of American Art collection, including one of the most famous Pollock's painting Number 27 (1951), to Milan. Even those who do not like abstract expressionism or are as indifferent as I was before, will find it interesting to attend. Well-curated, with only few minor defects such as broken light (that is probably fixed by now) was giving a special shadow effect to Morris Louis painting, a video presentation by Luca Beatrice only in Italian (watch here) and a bit confusing flow/signage as well as an odd location of a gift shop inside the exhibition space instead of being adjacent to it (right after the first room, yet, with the entrance from the last exhibition hall), the show is a great way to discover and to learn about the first pure American art movement and its key figures. While the focus is on Pollock, exhibition represents other painters of post-war USA such as William De Kooning, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, Ad Reinhardt, Clifford Still, Bradley Walker Tomlin, Richard Pousette-Dart. The Irascibles or Irascible 18, as they were called after submitting an open letter to New York's Metropolitan Museum director boycotting American Painting Today - 1950 exhibition are depicted on a famous photograph dressed up in suits as respectful bankers (except Pollock who already made a huge effort by taking off his favorite jeans and wearing a suit). 

In addition, the exhibition has a good mix of learning and fun thanks to video installation showing dripping technique in action as a step-by-step digital process or an option to lay down on a comfy sofa and look up where an extract of Jackson Pollock 51 documentary by Hans Namuth is screened. As far as I know, this is the only time when Pollock was speaking on camera when he was making a painting. 

the digital step-by-step process creates a white space on the floor into Pollock's Number 27 painting. Click here to learn more about this artowrk

 

A brilliant idea of placing the visitors below the screen with the video gives an effect of Pollock painting on you

Jackson Pollock 51 (1951) documentary by Hans Namuth, full movie

The sound is not the greatest, so here's the extract on Jackson Pollock's attitude to painting: 

“I enjoy working on a large canvas. I feel more at home, more at ease, in a big area. 

Having the canvas on the floor I feel nearer, more a part of the painting. This way I can walk around it, work from all four sides and be in the painting, similar to the Indian sand painters of the West. 

Sometimes I use a brush but often prefer using a stick. Sometimes I pour the paint straight out of the can. I like to use a dripping fluid paint. I also use sand, broken glass, pebbles, string, nails, or other foreign matter. 

A method of painting is a natural growth out of a need. I want to express my feelings rather than illustrate them. 

Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement. When I am painting I have a general notion as to what I am about. I can control the flow of the paint. 

There is no accident, just as there is no beginning and no end. Sometimes I lose a painting, but I have no fear of changes...of destroying the image. Because a painting has a life of its own, I try to let it live.”

Picasso Baby or almost Olympic Records in the Art Market

Yesterday, November 12 2013, Christie's New York auction in Rockefeller Plaza has broken more than one record: the auction itself gathered unprecedented $691,5 mln in total sales of which  $142,4 mln. were paid for Francis Bacon's triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud (1969). This sale smashed previous record of the most expensive painting ever sold in public auction - Edvard Munch's The Scream (1985) which went for $119.9 mln. on May 2, 2012 on the competitor's auction. 

According to Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Bacon was the “(that) man who paints 

those dreadful pictures”. This triptych depicts Bacon's friend and rival Freud and was sold almost twice as much as it was estimated by Christie's 

Edvard Munch's The Scream has several variations. 

This one is tempera and pastel on board (1893)

but very few of you probably know this painting 

called Despair, oil on canvas (1893-94) 

Meet Jeff Koons' 12 ft "Balloon Dog (Orange)" - the most expensive piece of art by a living artist sold on a public auction at a record $58,4 mnl. Jeff Koons made five variations of colored sculptures (red, orange, magenta, blue and yellow) aiming at reflecting "<..> joy of celebrating a birthday or a party." This theme has been well-marked appearing in many topnotch cultural and art sites such as  Grand Canal in Venice to the roof terrace of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Jeff Koon's 12 ft "Balloon Dog (Orange)" from 1994 "Celebration" series 

Gerhard Richter's Cathedral Square, Milan until 

yesterday was the most expensive painting of a living artist

Still, the unbeatable record is Paul Cézanne's The Card Players (1894-95) sold on April 2011 for $259 mln in private sales to the Royal Family of Qatar which earned Sheikha Al Mayassa the title of the most influential art persona of 2013 by the Art Newspaper because of her agency’s “vast purchasing power”. George Embiricos, a Greek shipping magnate and former owner of the painting, made a good business by selling the only privately held piece in the same year of few big retrospective exhibitions of Paul Cézanne, including the one in Paris and Milan. 

The Card Players 1892–93. Oil on canvas, 97 × 130 cm

Cézanne have made numerous studies and five paintings of the theme which is very significant for art history and is a cornerstone in the artist's artistic career, a prelude to his most acclaimed works. 

The Card Players, 1892-95,Courtauld Institute, London 

The Card Players 1894–1895, Musée d'Orsay, Paris

The Card Players, 1890–92, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Card Players, 1890–92, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Olympic Games' motto Citius - Altius - Fortius, the three words in Latin that mean Faster - Higher - Stronger, can be attributed to art world as well. Maybe the reason of sky-rocking prices can be explained by Nicolai Iljine's, an art consultant for the Guggenheim, phrase: “There is not much great art left on the market and there is a lot of competition to get it.”

If you are curious, the list of the most expensive art pieces ever sold (ca.50 items) in auctions include nine Picasso's and five Vincent van Gogh works, buyers apart from mostly American museums include Arab royals, quite a few hedge fund founders and businessmen, and ex-prime minister of Georgia, also a successful businessman. IMHO, Picasso is a Louis Vuitton of art world - or you crave it and adore (especially, the real luxury models), or you find it too mainstream like some of LV's model that made one of my consultant colleagues specializing in luxury say that LV is an "aspirational brand for secretaries" (no offense, plus, this colleague has so many leather goods  with LV monogram). Myself, I like a more figurative blue and pink periods of Piccaso and the time of his collaboration with Braque. 

Coming back to aspirational point of art, I want to finish the post with famous rapper Jay-Z's recent song Picasso Baby. 

"I just want a Picasso in my casa, no, my castle

I'm a hassa, no, I'm an asshole

I'm never satisfied, can't knock my hustle

I wanna Rothko, no, I want a brothel

No, I want a wife that fuck me like a prostitute

Let's make love on a million

In a dirty hotel with the fan on the ceiling

All for the love of drug dealing

Marble floors, gold ceilings

Oh, what a feeling, fuck it, I want a billion

Jeff Koons balloons, I just wanna blow up

Condos in my condos, I wanna row of

Christie's with my missy, live at the MoMA

Bacons and turkey bacons, smell the aroma"

If you want to read more about this, I suggest to check out SF MOMA's blog post.

If you love rankings, then check out the top 20 most expensive contemporary art auction prices list of 2013 compiled by Blouin Artinfo.