Autumn of Rhythm; Jackson Pollock, 1950

Autumn of Rhythm; Jackson Pollock, 1950

 Introduction

Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) is a 1950 piece of art by Jackson Pollock, which is currently found at the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) was born in Cody, Wyoming, and from the age of sixteen, he studied at the Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles. At the age of eighteen, Pollock moved to New York and joined a Mexican muralist artist David Alfaro’s workshop, in 1936. The 1940s were critical years of the American Art following the upsurge of abstract expressionism movement in New York. His works of art in the period played a crucial role in the growth of the movement and eventual influence on American artistry, later on, particularly the Autumn Rhythm painting. This paper develops an analysis of the painting and its position in the contextual art period and the Abstract Expressionist Movement.

Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)

Source: metmuseum.org

Description

Autumn Rhythm became one of the pioneer paintings of the abstract expressionism movement and steered Pollock as one of the leaders of the movement. It was painted in October 1950 in an unorthodox creative technique commonly referred to as “pour” and “drip” and involved painting on canvases spread on the floor. The piece regional category is American, painted in the Abstract Expressionist period and style. The painting is an enamel on canvas, and its dimensions are 525.8 x 266.7 centimeters. It is currently located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

Observing the Autumn Rhythm art establishes an idea existing in a conceptual form in a limited form of existence. The artist creates a web of lines that form shapes and a brilliant mixture of color from white, black, brown, and an attentive pattern that captures the mind of the viewer. The artistic elements in the piece of art are complex, particularly with the integration of line elements and shape elements. The perceived shape of the painting develops from the line flow forming a turquoise shape in the middle. The lines are free curves that adopt different slopes, forming an intricate web shape of the color mixtures.

The art form element is one that requires an attentive approach to establish beyond the mixture of lines forming the web. The form is purely abstract, although their tolerance develops deep visualization of three human forms covered by the lines. The viewer establishes the painting’s texture in the color shades mixture and their tolerance in thick and thin lines and dark and light hue. From the view, one develops a touch feel that depicts the value and space elements of the painting as an abstract object seeking control and in motion. The artist draws human imagination as a flow of ideas while the curves establish balances and imbalances of its power.

Function/Purpose

In developing an analysis of the painting’s function, many factors play into place through a critical examination of the painting, the artist, and the period and style of the art. The art was painted in the post-world war II period when American art was shifting from the murals that dominated the early part of the 20^th century. This was a new period of social and political transformations that impacted almost every perspective of human activities. Much of such perspectives was the element of freedom and liberty as people strived to establish new and independent forms of doing things. Jackson Pollock had crafted his artistic touch under the muralist movement, learning at the experimental workshop of David Alfaro. In 1947, he started crafting a new line of artistic experiences as an expression of artistic freedom and freedom of thought. This would evolve into one of the changing dimensions of art in the preceding years and establish a new movement of artists across the world.

The painting served several purposes, notably, acting as the perfect culmination of the focus shift into the Abstract Expressionism movement. While Pollock had begun painting the abstract paintings in 1947, none had captured global attention as this one in 1950. According to Jackson-Pollock.org, the painting’s size was significant in assuming the scale of an environment for the artist and the viewers coming into contact with it. The artist had integrated his artistic approach with different forms of philosophies o art of both the past and the present period of its creation. Having studied art in both academic and directly under the muralist artists, Pollock sought to integrate the studies of Thomas Hart Benton, the Mexican muralist art, and the ancient art style in an abstract impression of artistic freedom. The purpose derived in the painting succeeded in not only establishing the method in the global perspective but also inspiring the rise of other styles, such as the Quebec-based Les Automatistes (Mureika & Taylor). The painting has remained one of the most renowned artworks of Pollock, and its significance in the world of art is unquestioned in the modern-day.

Historical and Ideological Insights

In the analysis of the painting, its ideological development and contextual evaluation must encompass the insights of the Abstract Expressionists movement. The global politics of the 1940s were critical features that impacted all of the human activities, art included. While the street art was evolving on the popular artists of the New York and Los Angeles cities, another group of artists was crafting their style under the Abstract expressionism ideology. The movement emerged from New York in the early years of the 1940s and evolved across America over the next decade (Stella). The style was not only radical at the time but equally diverse and primarily attracted the focus of the world of art. The artists in the movement popularly referred to as “The New York School” at the time included Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), William Baziotes (1912-1963), Barnet Newman (1905-1970), Robert Motherwell (1915-1991), Clyfford Still (1904-1980) among others (Stella). The group shared common characteristics as the youthful artists breaking into the trade, and their style was an advanced formal invention seeking to establish a significant content that reflected their psyche and tapped the universal metaphysical existence.

The historical development of the art ideology of the movement evolved from the sociopolitical issues of the 1930s in America and across the world. Each of the artists related the style in a diverse inspiration that also originated in an overlapping nature. During the 1930s, the Great Depression had established two distinct art movements in the region; Regionalism and social realism. These movements and their styles had failed to create an artistic satisfaction to both groups, and therefore, they found career paths in relief programs established by the government. The 1940s, however, began on a different political environment as the economic struggle ended, but the war effects spanned across the globe. People were getting back into their career paths as European artists fled the battle zones of World War II in Europe (“The United States and Canada, 1900 A.D.–present.”). This allowed the younger aspiring artists of the region to interact with those of European decency seeking refuge in the US and New York specifically. The surrealist artists established possibilities for founding satisfaction in the expression of artistic freedom through creativity and exploiting the state of unconsciousness (Stella).

In the early years of the Abstract expressionism, the artists focused on developing artworks that diversified the cultural perspective and inclusive of all the historical perspective. The significant features of the early artworks were biomorphic and pictographic elements, a feature that also inspired the three human form covered in Autumn Rhythm. The ideology developed a perception to foster the artistic imagination by establishing directness and limitations of premeditation as the elements that promoted the value and authenticity of the artist. The mature abstract expressionism was founded in 1947 through Jackson Pollock’s first “pouring and dripping” painting, establishing the element of non-objectivity sought under the ideology (Stella). The form and value of the arts were purely symbolic and set even higher aspect of imagination among the viewers. The movement had long sought to establish a style that promoted an artist’s identity, and the depiction in the abstract paintings was the utmost representation of the authentic character of an artist.

Personal Relation

The painting is a crucial tool for modern lovers of art such as me in establishing a historical development of art and its relation to human evolution. Autumn Rhythm manifests a symbolic representation of human imagination in artistic freedom of expression and how humans ought to establish their own identity in their activities. The painting does not necessarily require to adopt a specific symbolic representation as it tends to capture the process of the artist painting it within that moment. The art is crucial over future studies to examine its influence on the precedents of the movement and how it inspired other artists.

Works Cited

“Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)|1950|Jackson Pollock”. Metmuseum.Org, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/488978. Accessed 4 Dec 2019.

“The United States and Canada, 1900 A.D.–present.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=11&region=na (October 2004)

Mureika, J. R., and R. P. Taylor. “The Abstract Expressionists and Les Automatistes: A shared multi-fractal depth?.” Signal Processing 93.3 (2013): 573-578.

Paul, Stella. “Abstract Expressionism.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/abex/hd_abex.htm (October 2004)