Decoding Jackson Pollock @ Smithsonian Magazine via jk.
Did the Abstract Expressionist hide his name amid the swirls and torrents of a legendary 1943 mural? An art historian makes the case for a signature gesture… Pollock’s possibly writing his name in Mural testifies to an overlooked feature of his works: they have a structure, contrary to the popular notion that they could be done by any 5-year-old with a knack for splatters. In my view, Pollock organized the painting around his name according to a compositional system-vertical markings that serve as the loci of rhythmic spirals-borrowed directly from his mentor, Benton.
10 thoughts on “Decoding Jackson Pollock”
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and more legibly.
Oh, for crying outloud. How is this different from crackpots searching for hidden patterns and prophecies in Shakespeare or the bible? If you look hard enough, you’re gonna find both “Picasso”, “Leonardo” and “sausages” in that picture.
I was able to find my name in it in shapes that were just as convincing…
This is like obsessing over the “Face on Mars”.
Both the planet Mars and Pollock’s paintings are cool enough as is.
We don’t need to cheapen them by creating elaborate conspiracy theories.
Do the choices for what squiggle (or non-squiggle) is a letter seem SOMEWHAT arbitrary to anyone else? I’ve rarely ever seen a less-convincing argument…
/me starts looking for “sausages”
Yup. And some of them are MUCH clearer than his “name”.
I’m not saying he didn’t put his name in it. Just that the “example” is one of the worst I’ve seen.