Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) is viewed as one of the most important figures in the art world. An innovator of the avant-garde style (abstract expressionism) that was beginning to emerge, a new kind of painting that changed the way the world looked at art. Pollock’s large-scale paintings abandoned the conventional tools and methods of a painter. He put away brushes, artist paint and traditional compositions and switched to a method of pouring, dripping and splashing house paint directly onto large canvases placed on the floor, this method often being referred to as “action painting”. Before Pollock, paintings were produced on easels, considered, executed and seen from one direction only. Pollock’s aim was to go deeper into the internal subject of the work, this was when he started creating work on the floor on unstretched canvas leaving the idea of a pre-meditated subject far behind. …show more content…
It was a challenge to the audiences’ perception that provoked response, unlike traditional paintings where our eyes wander around the surface looking to make sense of the picture, in Pollock’s compositions the distinction between the figure and the foreground is eradicated. Rather than imposing hierarchy onto our experience of the painting Pollock asks the viewer to chose their own points of interest. Pollock does not the want the viewer to bring a preconceived idea to the painting but rather look passively and try to receive what the painting has to offer. Usually, Pollock would even name his paintings with just a number and a date, as he did not want the titles to explain to viewers what to see when they looked at his