Abstract Expressionism as a Means to Fight the Cold War

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Jackson Pollock was an abstract expressionist artists who was able to perfectly encapsulate motion into his works of art.  This sense of movement was created by laying the canvas flat on the floor rather than on an easel and allowing his movements to dictate where the paint was dipped and poured.  This created an almost three-dimensional look that was also achieved by using very specific viscosity's of paint that were thick nor thin.  This unique style of painting was completely new and had a sense of freedom that linked it to American culture.  The movement filled and abstract paintings that Jackson Pollock created stood in stark contrast to communism and strict ideals and therefore promoted the United States and the freedom within the country.

            Jackson Pollock was able to capture something that was rarely expressed in its full glory in other paintings, movement.  He was able to capture the motion of his hands by laying the painting on the ground and letting the paint pour on the canvas where ever his hands moved.  This space between his hands and the canvas allowed him to create a dynamic painting without ever making direct contact with the canvas which added to the three dimensional nature of his works.  This style had challenges though because he could not stop his hands from moving while he was pouring the paint.  He was required to keep making movement until the paint ran out.  Thomas Hart Benton was his mentor and he is the person that caused many of his ideas about rhythm, energy and body movement to be created.  The abstract paintings did not contain subjects that are difficult to paint in a dynamic state, the ribbons of liquid paint made the perfect form for movement and portraying the movements of Pollock’s hands above his work.          

            Jackson Pollock was able to convey movement through the techniques that he utilized.  Both the viscosity of the paint and the orientation of the canvas influenced his artistic process.  Most visual artists place their canvas on an easel at a vertical angle, but Jackson Pollock laid his canvas on the ground horizontally.  This orientation caused him to rely on gravity to allow the paint to pour downwards with every stroke of his arm.  In order for this paint to be poured and dripped, it needed to be a very particular viscosity.  Pollock was known to experiment with different paints and he normally used an enamel paint that he thinned.  Without gravity and the very specific viscosity of the paint, Pollock would not have been able to create the painting Number 23 or any of his other masterpieces.  

Jackson Pollock’s art was classified as part of the Abstract Expressionist movement.  This movement took place post-WWII and included many unique styles that put the United States on the forefront of unique and creative new art.  The time after WWII consisted of a lot of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union that is formerly called the Cold War.  Jackson Pollock’s art is very unique and representative of freedom due to its abstract style.  This free form stands in stark contrast to the ideological straight jacket that the Soviet Union was trapped into.  Pollock’s style showed the joy and the freedom of the west while simultaneously showing the strictness and censorship that existed in the Soviet Union, here the Cold War was fought through art.       

Works Cited:

Cernusch, Claude, and Andrzej Herczynski. "The Subversion of Gravity in Jackson Pollock’s Abstractions." Art Bull 90 (2008): 616-39. Print.