SAMPLE ESSAY

Discuss the work of Jackson Pollock, considering his painting as an expression of his times, with the growing interest and awareness of psychology and psychiatry and of the subconscious. Jackson Pollock was an American Abstract Expressionist who screamed defiance of every rule of harmony and good taste in the 1940s. He not only broke the ice in American art, but set a canon of artistic intensity for generations to come.
Introduction context

Characteristic of postwar art, his work demonstrated intuition and spontaneity and drew much of its inspiration from the subconscious. In their quest for self-realisation, many artists of the time turned to the philosophical influences of Freud and Jung. These new ideas gave justification to abstract and non-figurative art psychoanalysis became the key that unlocked the meaning of symbols to be interpreted by the subconscious.
An overview of intention/style

Pollock prided himself on the rawness and even brutality of his work. Cathedral 1947 is born of passionate subjectivity; tangled threads of pigment are dripped and splattered on the canvas, and there is an endless maze of pattern and movement. One cannot fail to be excited by the work's vitality and its explosive release of painterly forces and kinetic power. His atmospheric painting Lavender Mist 1950 depicts fog, vagueness, translucency and tiny incidents pulsating in a large field. Critic Harold Rosenberg's notion was that Abstract Expressionism was not really painting at all, not paint on canvas, but a series of exemplary acts.
Analysis of examples/meaning effect on viewer

Pollock's unconventional method of painting was named action painting in 1952 by Rosenberg, referring to the nature of Pollock's creative process. When I am in my painting, I am not aware of what I am doing. It is only after a sort of getting acquainted period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise, there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well (quoted in Jack A. Hobbs, Art in Context, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Florida, 1985, pp. 2004).
Include quotes by artist or critic

Rosenberg explained that the canvas became an arena in which to act, rather than a space in which to produce. Hence the function of art was altered from the emphasis on the finished product to the actual process of creation. Jung believed in the psychological idea that the artist has at all times been the instrument and spokesperson of the spirit of his age. Through his work, Pollock aimed to express personal feelings of anxiety, fear, happiness or disgust that were, to him, impossible to represent objectively. Psychoanalytic art allowed artists to paint private images or symbols that came from within.
Influences, background information on artist's practice

They were not necessarily obvious to the general viewer and led to the art of the inward eye, where artists looked introspectively to find the answers to questions that had for so long been overlooked or avoided. Over time, these private symbols became social metaphors as the

subjective subject matter of paintings such as those of Pollock keyed into feelings that affected many other people and so became universal symbols or archetypes.
Back to question

Despite the fact that these non-figurative artworks do not depict everyday objects or human beings or animals, there is a human bond that strikes a chord between the viewer and the work. Jung stated that fascination arises when the unconscious has been moved. It is evident that modern artists touch the subconscious of the audience. These paintings work on a more intense level of interpretation than objective and sensory art that makes a direct appeal to the feelings. After curiosity has been satisfied, the formal qualities of the work reach out to the subconscious, which picks up on the vocabulary of art. This links with Jung's idea that the aim of the modern artist is to give expression to the inner vision of man, to the spiritual background of life and the world. Modern art performed the same functions as art of the past. It continued to satisfy personal needs for expression and the social needs of communication. But the rise of psychology and psychiatry made it possible to interpret art in a new dimension.
Conclusion expression of his times and psychology from the essay question

Jackson Pollock, with his energy, imagination and interest in psychology, was an instrument and spokesman of his time. Thus we can ask: was he, as reported, a wild and angry man, or simply the subconscious mind of every human being?
Own interpretation strong ending