For our latest project we were to choose one of 12 abstract expressionists, analyze and then create a construction of the work. I had Jackson Pollock, which i thought was going to be relatively straight forward. That was a misconception.
This was the piece that i was assigned:
This are a few of my constructs:
Thoughts? Criticism?
12 Comments
for starters - it would help to see your analysis (that which tells us how you read the painting, and transform it into a construct). This, for me, is the critical portion of this exercise - taking the painting apart, understanding the elements etc. then re-framing them in a construct.
a few things that I see in the painting:
-a field condition
-various systems layered onto the field
-the heirarchy of aforementioned systems
-moments of intensity
There are definate layers in this painting. Maybe you could break each of the layers down and analize each of them individually, and base the construct on the relationships that form between those layers, ie: intersections, divisions, patterns, points, edges, paths, direction, etc...
Maybe I'm wrong, but your structure doesn't seem to be a tensegrity structure, which would make it much more powerful. My own bias make me read this pollock as a flat tensegrity structure.
I have some drawings but no scanner and am in studio right now exploring some solid spaces from that image. I'll try to get some images up soon (even if they are just photos. The heirarchy is hard for me to see because just when i think i understand one, i find another and so it never ends - a bit frustrating in that respect. My prof and GA have said that they see similar characteristics and/or events in the painting.
Chili Davis:
I like this concept and am trying to explore this as well. The paint seems to lash the "sticks" together and help hold the image together. This is perhaps a bit too literal. I am not too sure though.
Arnaud M.:
What do you mean by "tensegrity?" I have my own perception, but i would like to hear what you mean by this.
Thanks to everyone for your feedback.
maybe by playing around with the painting in photoshop you can separate out the layers of the painting by separating the image by colors...
i've never tried it before, but i'm sure that you can do it somehow...
It was one of Bucky's main "tenet". It stands for tensional integrity.
That's an interesting idea. I am going to invert it here shortly and see what happens. Perhaps then i can extrude other elements/colors/conditions.
pollack, dekooning and the like minded were deemed action painters. rothko, tworkin etc field painters. why analyze a work by trying to recreate it in another medium. the new york school was about painting.
pollack was action and intuition balanced by reflection, so make your own.
ya, architphil, good thinking.
select color, ctrl + c, ctrl + n, enter, ctrl + v.
but don't stop there, morph...let the photoshop trick act as a tool for you. take it at least a step or 2 further...you can take each one of these color-seperated systems, decide what it is, what it would be as a construct...
oh the good 'ol days.
i have no problem addressing something on my own terms - each individual brings his/her own ____ to the viewing/reading of art...so for me, an analysis doesn't have to be subject to an art historian's desire to categorize pollack or whomever as X Y or Z. ...but, vado is much more intelligent than me so you should probably ignore what i've said and listen to him...
The point is just as you said, not to mimic or copy, rather to attempt to understand and create/deviate.
AP:
That sounds great. We are not working with color right now, but i think i see your point that it isn't working with color rather than understanding relationships between colors/materials?
if you are going to use pollack you should use the spirit of pollack, which are the points that i noted. what it looks like doesnt really matter, if it is carried out in the spirit of pollack...
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