Contextual Research

Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock, 

1942, Oil on linen, 

Museum of Modern Art, New York, 

40 x 56 in, 101.6 x 142.2 cm

The artist that I have selected is Jackson Pollock and his work is called "Stenographic Figure". Jackson Pollock’s Stenographic Figure is confusing. Since the painting was unveiled in 1943 there have been so many theories about the number of figures, the position of the figures, the significance of all the numerical scribbling’s. The numbers, letters, and other notations Pollock deploys across the surface of the canvas carry a greater significance than the merely visual interest. The painting Stenographic Figure was completed in the year 1942 by famous painter Jackson Pollock. Unlike most of Pollock’s first few paintings, this painting is more colourful and the palette is not that sombre. Many consider it as a bright and airy painting. In fact the prevalent style of this painting is regarded as abstract expressionism. Apart from viewing the flat and planar fields of colour, Pollock went a step further in this painting. This is because there are two elementary human forms which give more character to the painting. And this is where the name itself, Stenographic Figure, comes from. One of the figures is at the right edge of the painting, and the other one is just left of the centre. Pollock then finished off the painting by applying brush strokes in various parts of the painting.

Jackson Pollock was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was well known for his unique style of drip painting. Pollock was introduced to the use of liquid paint in 1936.  He used paint pouring as one of several techniques on canvases of the early 1940s, such as Male and Female and Composition. After his he began painting with his canvases laid out on the studio floor, and he developed what was called his "drip" technique. With this technique, Pollock was able to achieve a more immediate means of creating art, the paint now literally flowing from his chosen tool onto the canvas. By defying the convention of painting on an upright surface, he added a new dimension by being able to view and apply paint to his canvases from all directions. A possible influence on Pollock was the work of the Ukrainian American artist Janet Sobel(1894–1968). Pollock moved away from figurative representation, and challenged the use of easel and brush. He used the force of his whole body to paint, which was expressed on the large canvases.the whole arrangement of the picture is expressive. The place occupied by figures or objects. the empty spaces around them, the proportions everything plays apart. Pollocks similar attitude towards composition in addition to his newly heightened colour sense.