Читать книгу Pollock - Donald Wigal - Страница 18

“I think they (laymen) should not look for, but look passively – and try to receive what the painting has to offer and not bring a subject matter or preconceived idea of what they are to be looking for.”[22]

Age 38

During Pollock’s pre-teenage years, culture shocks (such as those coming from Freud, Stravinsky, and Dada) seemed to be preparing the world for him. Ryder and other predecessors died in 1917. They were yet to be admired by the young Pollock, while others whom he would look up to including Matisse and Picasso were already flourishing. The decade was also the advent of the basic documents of Jungian psychology which would influence the behaviour and work of the future artist intimately.

In 1913, post-impressionism and cubism were introduced to the New York art world at the Armory Show in Manhattan. The resulting culture shock paved the way for the jolt of seeing the brilliant results of Pollock’s creative gesture which were still several years away. The large mural-like paintings he would create would similarly revolutionise how the world experienced art. The shock in the galleries would be similar to the reaction in the concert hall that same year to Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps.

The visual art scene in Europe was preparing the world for a similar revolution in popular culture. The surprise would be that the ice would be broken in America – by a very unlikely cowboy-like rebel.

In 1914, Tennessee Williams was born. In 1915, Marcel Duchamp showed his first Dada-type paintings. In 1916 Matisse (1860–1954) showed The Three Sisters. In 1917, C. J. Jung published Psychology of the Unconscious. Picasso created Surrealist objects for a ballet. Albert P. Ryder (b.1847), who developed a technique of painting sweeping strokes with a palette knife, died. In 1918, Joan Miró had his first exhibits. In 1919, Hans Arp and Max Ernst showed collages. Arp explored Dadaism through sculpture and ‘chance’ forms. Ernst sought to express the subconscious. In 1920, C. J. Jung published Psychological Types. In Cologne, visitors were encouraged to destroy the paintings in a Dadaist exhibition. In 1921, Oskar Kokoschka exhibited expressionist paintings. Jazz dominated American popular culture.