Tuesday, June 08, 2010

 

Is it art?


In 1950, Jackson Pollock "painted" this piece, One: Number 31.

This description of Pollock's technique in creating this piece is from artbeyondsight.com:

Pollock laid the canvas flat on the floor. Then he walked around with a can of paint, using first one colour and then another, pouring and dripping paint all over the canvas. He would not pour the paint directly from the can. Rather - he dripped it from brushes, or from sticks used for mixing house paint. As he walked, he would fling his arms in sweeping gestures, so the paint trails in long, blobby ropes across the canvas - some are straight, some curve and they vary in length. He was able to control where the paint would be thick and where it would form fine, thin lines. He carried on until he had covered the canvas with a deep, dense web of trailing ropes of paint. The bare, off-white surface of the canvas is visible in many places, particularly around the edges and corners of this unframed painting. One can imagine the experience of running one's hands over its knobbly surface, and following the trails of paint with one's fingertips.


But... is it art?
And does it hold any meaning for you, whether or not it is art?

Comments:
If it isn't art, what is it?
 
Yes, it is art. Modern, abstract art... but art nonetheless.

I'm not so sure it has meaning to me, or that it stirs any great emotion, but Pollock displays a sort of carefree technical mastery, which may be the feat(ure) that makes it art.
 
It is scribbling. I don't really see a statement there, or beauty.
 
Honestly, abstract art has never been particularly meaningful to me. When my preschooler draws a "giraffe" that looks like a hybrid breed of a dog and a dinosaur but tells me a fantastical tale about the drawing, then I think that is art, b/c it is obviously meaningful to him - thus, to me.
 
No and no.
 
'People' say it is art, but I personally fail to derive any meaning or see beauty in most of Pollack's work. Just not my style.
 
I think the answer to the "is it art?" question lies in the answer to another question: Do you, individually, consider it to be art?
Some will, some won't.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Also, give it 110 percent, win one for the gipper and remember a rolling stone gathers no moss.
 
Art is a reflection of our humanity (hopes, fears, desires). Great art evokes emotion from us leaving us unable to adequately articulate why. I've always been a fan of good impressionism and abstract art because it strives even more to bring in more than just the 3d.
 
It is art and Thomas Pynchon is a great writer.
 
We're forgetting a more important question:

Will it blend?
 
Yes, it is art. But this particular art does not move me. I guess I don't understand it.
 
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