Jackson Pollock - Did he put more into his paintings than most artists?

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Jackson Pollock

Did he put more into his paintings than most artists?

Jackson Pollock was a revolutionary painter and took his methods to new heights so that he could work more directly with the canvas to show pure emotion within his art work.

In 1938, Jackson Pollock went to see a psychoanalysis to help him get over a drinking problem, but he couldn't express himself well enough through words so he decided to draw a series of paintings in which he tried to convey his emotion Jackson Pollock used autobiographical drawings to create a series of paintings of distorted heads in which noses teeth, mouths and eyes became expressive rhythmic patterns.

At this time Jackson Pollock used certain images to express his feelings and this wasn't what he wanted. He no longer wanted to express feelings as illustrations but rather to express feelings that couldn't be seen. In stead of drawing a representation of an angry man he wanted to somehow convey the feeling of anger onto the canvas with out subject matter.

The Moon-Woman Cuts the Circle (1943; 109.5 x 104 cm (43 x 41 in) is an early Pollock, but it shows the passionate intensity with which he pursued his personal vision. This painting is based on a North American Indian myth. It connects the moon with the feminine and shows the creative, slashing power of the female psyche. It is not easy to say what we are actually looking at: a face rises before us, vibrant with power, though perhaps the image does not benefit from laboured explanations. If we can respond to this art at a fairly primitive level, then we can also respond to a great abstract work such as Lavender Mist. If we cannot, at least we can appreciate the fusion of colours and...