Have you ever stood so close to Lucifer that you can sort of smell the cigarette ashes that are embedded in the decades old paint?
(detail)
I have…
Just before every alarm at the San Francisco Museum of Modern art went off sending hoards of armed guards to the painting’s rescue… and while they attempted to frisk me for razor blades and sharpies, I broke free and screamed SAVE ALL THE LOBSTERS… because I’m allergic, so why should anyone else get to eat them? But then I thought better of myself and made my way out of the situation by peeing on the floor and yelling obsceneties at onlookers… because that’s what Pollock would have done.
Jackson Pollock died today in 1956.
And, don’t get me wrong… I’m not sitting here holding a white candle pretending that he was a gift to us or anything… I didn’t really even know about it… Facebook told me. And then I slipped into another dimension where I have to wonder what Pollock would have thought about the internet and all of this social media nonsense… a remembrance of his untimely (but maybe not) passing. If he was as cool as I imagine him to have been… then no. He wouldn’t have cared… but then he would have had a fit had no one said anything. A mean, somewhat sexy and yet still gruesome and gruffy artist that drank and drank… He even held a disdain for the work he created, not really wanting to explain himself and therefore we only have the explanation of others. Like a man that relies on everyone else to tie his shoes… but still thinks he’s better than you, and still, wishing that he hadn’t gone out that fateful night… Warped and twisted with all kinds of mental issues playing out…. And aside from the whole.. WHATEVER of Ed Harris and, like, totally inventing Abstract Expressionism (can you hear my gum smack?)…
Is it just me?
What was, and still is, IT about this guy?
It’s just you.
I’m sorry… I meant to ask everyone BUT Elly.
LOL. Sorry for butting in to this exchange without lubricant.
Even copious quantities of lube couldn’t make me like Pollock’s work. Sorry. I tried, I swear.
Thank you for trying! I forgive you… and copious quantities of lube couldn’t make me do ANYTHING.
I know, he was just sooooo coooool maaaan. He’s like the Kerouac of painting (though I think Kerouac painted but whatever). I’d like to think I’d be like him if I were a genius painter.
I’d like to think that I was friends with him… to be him might have included some seriously painful hangovers.
Chaos that’s actually not chaos after all. I am always amused by all the studies trying to figure out the mathematical (or whatever) pattern behind the seeming chaos.
p.s. I saw the related post “Pollock and Kandinsky” and I remembered Will’s picture!
Will is more a Kandinsky — who was much more refined… I wonder if Pollock thought mathematically, or if it just happened.
Some people may be tempted to say, “I can do that too!” Those people need to come face to face with his paintings in real life. They are breath-taking, and honestly I cannot tell you why.
I know. I was once obsessed… and just now I went and stared at a mini print I have of Lucifer and found myself frozen for a while… transfixed.
I thought the same thing until I saw one up close and personal.
My kids attempted it once with a canvas on the floor and six large paint brushes. It looked like the dog vomited on it.
Have you ever been to the EastHampton house?
Wait, I should clarify that I mean that I had that “I can do that too” attitude. I LOVE his work.
I have been to the East Hampton house… its currently being run by a woman that hates people, so I’m waiting for that to pass before returning… they also have classes for kids Pollock style, but hence… the woman.
Remember, I like to stab people for real. For a small fee. She can be easily replaced.
saw his work years ago at the philadelphia museum of art. fell enthralled and entranced. bought the book. watched the movie. now i just need to be more successful than you at stealing one.
Umm, not seeing it. Paintings like that don’t do anything for me. I can take a tube of oil paint, and do the same thing. That’s what I’m seeing. But that’s the great thing about art…everyone’s perception is different.
And people like him scare me. He definitely thought in a different dimension.