Artworks of Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol (Research Paper Sample)

Artworks of Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol
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Abstract expressionism and pop art
Abstract expressionism is art that artists express themselves purely by using color and form. It is a non-objective or non-representational type of art, which implies there are no actual representations of objects. The art is regarded as the first American artistic movement, which had international significance. Temkin (2010) says that the term was originally applied to describe the artworks of Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning. Abstract expressionism is divided into two groups. The first type of movement is Action Painting, which emphasized on the depiction of physical action through painting. This category of abstract expressionism is characterized by the works of Franz Kline, de Kooning, Philip Guston, and Jackson Pollock. The second group is the Color Field Painting mainly focused on presenting the effects of pure color on a canvass. This type of movement was practiced by abstract expressionist painters such as Kenneth Noland and Mark Rothko.
Jackson Pollock was the artist who founded an innovative painting method called Action painting, which was a technique of creating abstract art concerned with smearing and dripping the paint onto the canvass to present impressive sweeping gestures. Pollock used knives and sticks to fling and pour the paint onto an outstretched canvass that has been fixed to a hard floor or wall (Landau, Szafran, Rivers, Learner and Phenix, 2014). He used to walk across the floor while painting, which enabled him to facilitate the process of painting. He sometimes used a heavy impasto by incorporating broken glass and other materials to pour and splatter paint on a canvass placed on the floor. David Alfaro Siqueiros (the Mexican painter) was an artist who introduced Pollock to the method of painting-pouring during 1936. Pollock further learned the technique of Action Painting in New Mexico from Navajo Indians who created their renowned sand painting by splattering earth paints to form patterns on the ground.
Pop art (1950s-1970s) is a technique of the art that depicts the everyday imagery, which concerns with contemporary consumer culture. Imagery representations were sourced from comic strips, consumer product packaging, advertisements, and celebrity photographs (Myers and Stedman, 2001). Pop art was featured by the works of Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol. Specifically, Andy Warhol used the style of pop art, which includes silkscreen printing to create iconic portraits of superstars such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. Warhol transformed stars and celebrities into modern art objects. Rubin (2006) opines that using pop art technique gave Warhol access to several unique social circles in creating portraits of Hollywood film stars, media moguls, intellectuals, and other wealthy patrons. He played a major role in creating commercial imagery of products such as Coca-Cola bottles, Soup Cans and others, which were considered as fine art. In 1960, Warhol started designing painting of mass-produced images like newspaper advertisements and comic-strip characters. His works were based on consumerist lifestyle of modern American culture. For instance, he created banal objects like Coca-cola bottles and Soup bottles, which were products that consumers use every day.
The artworks of Pollock and Warhol
“One (number 31)” was one of Pollock’s most important works, which was painted in 1950. The painting was created on a wide huge canvas and was hanged on the wall. The picture appears expanding on either side when a viewer stands on the middle part. According to Landau, Szafran, Rivers, Learner and Phenix (2014), this is an abstract artwork without any hint or objective of representation. The colors of the picture are somber: white, gray, blue, brown, and black colors were poured and splattered on a white canvas.
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Pollock’s artwork: One (number 31)
Pollock used his “drip” technique to paint the work. There is no better approach that can be used to describe the way the painting looks apart from explaining the manner in which it was painted. Frascina (2000) presents that the canvas was laid flat on the floor then Pollock walked around it with paint, using one color and then the other by dripping and pouring paints all over the canvas. He used brushes to drip the paint and also used sticks to mix the paint. While he walked around the canvas, he flings his arms in a manner that lead to the creation of sweeping gestures. The paints move like blobby ropes across the canvas; some move straight, others move in a curved manner while others differ in length (Temkin, 2010). He controlled where the paint would form fine thin lines and where it would form thick content. He applied and controlled the paint until he covered the canvass with dense and deep spreading ropes of paints. The surface of the canvass is painted using visible bare and off-white color, and spread in several places especially around the corners and edges of this unframed painting.
On the other hand, one of the Warhol’s artwork was “Campbell’s Soup Cans”. Rubin (2006) explains that a gallery owner (Muriel Latow) was the person who influenced Warhol to work on this paint “The Campbell’s Soup Cans”. Warhol obtained advice from Latow that he should paint objects, which people see every day. Warhol painted the portrait in 1962, which was an example of a common product, which consumers use every day. The product is an ancient staple food found in most American homes; is the product, which Warhol transformed into a high ...