Abstract Expressionism: My Fascination

Assignment 3: Metropolitan Museum of Art Visit

Title: Abstract Expressionism: My Fascination

Student: Enid Farber

Mentor: Raul Manzano

Date: October 18th, 2008

I am admittedly fascinated with abstract expressionism and here’s why. I have dedicated most of my life to the photography of Jazz and the bold, graphic, spirited, often wild and improvisational nature of abstract expressionism is fundamental to the sentiments of America’s original musical art form.
The essence of abstract expressionism lies in its rhythmic informality, a whimsical approach that was coined “action painting” by critic Harold Rosenberg.  The esteemed critic wrote a piece originally published in Art News in 1952 explaining this new methodology as follows:
`“At a certain moment the canvas began to appear to one American painter after another as an arena in which to act—rather than as a space in which to reproduce, re-design, analyze or “express” an object, actual or imagined. What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event. The painter no longer approached his easel with an image in his mind; he went up to it with material in his hand to do something to that other piece of material in front of him. The image would be the result of this encounter” (Rosenberg).
The artists who devoted most of their careers to this kind of theatrical kinetic style of painting included Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning, Franz Kline and Mark Rothko. Jazz indisputably informed Pollock’s work and he was perhaps the most famous of those “New York School” painters and his “drip paintings” were the subject of much publicity.
Jackson’s life was short but his impact great. Once upon a time he painted in cramped Manhattan apartment quarters. Peggy Guggenheim was a benefactor who enabled Pollock and his artist wife, Lee Krasner to relocate to a modest home in the Hamptons of Long Island. He set up a painting studio in the barn adjacent to his home where he developed his “drip” style (Debra Goldberg). I can imagine him listening to the syncopated sounds of Ornette Coleman (an avant-garde jazz saxophonist who used Pollock’s art on one of his album covers) and responding physically and spiritually with his body and cans of paint, in a unified dance with his canvas and the music.
The impulse to move and create is not foreign to me. I understand and appreciate how that feels as a photographer who specializes in the art of jazz photography. Music can permeate the soul and influence technique. Pollock’s painting, Autumn Rhythm exemplifies this.  The title has an obvious reference to music but it is the splatters and drips of paint that remind me of many jumbled musical notes that have gone awry, like a symphonic jazz composition that wanders freely.
Although the color palette of Autumn Rhythm does not stimulate my senses in the way that a chaotic free jazz composition does, it evokes a vision of  Duke Ellington’s ambitious 1943 jazz suite, Black, Brown and Beige.  I cannot assume that Pollock was referring to that extraordinary and broad piece of musical history but it is entirely possible knowing his passion for the genre.  One wonders if Pollock attended that historic Carnegie Hall concert, seven years prior to painting, Autumn Rhythm and connected to this misunderstood masterpiece. Perhaps Pollock was attempting to show his appreciation to Ellington who was not afforded much love by the critics when he premiered the composition which has since been given it’s due respect. I raise these possibilities not only because of the palette choice (although it included white) but because of it’s expansiveness which emulates the three hour length of the performance of Black, Brown and Beige in relative terms to the scope of the painting.
Of course I could be reading much too much into this interpretation.  The subject of interpretation is a continual curiosity for me.  Interpreting Autumn Rhythm and Jackson Pollock is a good example of my thoughts about the exercise of interpreting. that I strongly believe and assert, is always based on one’s personal experience, background, biases, and other external and internal factors. Because of my own strong alliance to jazz music and my knowledge of the subject, I am organically drawn to the musically motivated aspect of Pollock’s profile. I believe that all great vintage art having gone through many iterations of interpretation, have withstood all that can be possibly said about a particular masterpiece and that all that is left to be said is just a variation on the same theme, based on the interpreters specific circumstances and time and place in history.
Abstract expressionism as an art form is also subject to interpretation.  After all, any art that is provoked by the unconscious, that is based more on emotion than on the cerebral, reactions and therefore actions, and is a veritable performance piece of art, cannot be easily defined. But according to Steve Maier, director and co-owner of Fine Art Hawaii, Honolulu, quoted in an online article—
“The wonderful thing about abstract art is that there are no ‘wrong’ interpretations. There may be some lame comments, but the interpretation is up to the viewer and we are happy to leave it up to the sometimes-fertile imagination of collectors and critics. Collectors of abstract art are a confident lot and can get by without too much interpretation. I abstain from telling anyone what the painting is about because I could squeeze as much meaning out as I would be putting in. I encourage people to tell me what they see” (Art Business News).
Viscerally, emotionally, without regard for too much interpretation, abstract expressionism offers a bit of a respite from dissecting art such as that of Matisse, Picasso and Miro and offers the viewer a kind of mental vacation where the pleasure of the viewing is more important and rewarding then the ultimate and decisive understanding. For my money, that is a welcome activity.

Citations:
Rosenberg, Harold. “”The American Action Painters” from Tradition of the New.” Art News Dec. 1952: 22-22.

Goldberg, Debra “Abstract Art Tour.” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 18 Oct. 2008.
Hart, Jane. “Defining the abstract: it may seem like the antithesis of what abstract art is all about. Or, it could be that attempts to define the abstract and what the artist intended is part of the genre’s appeal.” BNET Business Network. Mar. 2006. 24 Oct. 2008 <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0hmu/is_/ai_n26802938>.

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