March 16 – I arrived at my Pollock painting at MoMA at 3:15. The museum seemed rather empty – except for the Pollock room! It was crammed with people. I scoogied myself into a spot on the bench and sat. At times there were so many people in front of me, I could barely see the painting. I wonder if Pollock, in his wildest dreams, could ever have imagined that his art would have such an impact.
Today I thought I’d get an audio phone to learn something about Jackson (I think I’ll start calling him JP). I found it funny that when they handed me the instruction guide, the sample painging in is was No. 402, the Pollock I’ve been looking at. (I might be rather naive, but I actually had no idea JP was so famous – shows you how much I know about art….)
The painting is called One: Number 31, 1950. It’s an oil enamel on unprimed canvas. The audio starts off with a quote from Pollock int he mid-1940s, “My painting does not come from the easel. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas on the wall or floor. On the floor, I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more a part of the painting since I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting. I prefer sticks, trowels, knives, and dripping fluid paint. When I’m in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing. It’s only when I lost contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise, there is pure harmony, an easy give and take.” – the artist Jackson Pollock in the mid-1940s.
This is one of Pollock’s large paintings – maybe 12′ x 20′?? I think to view it properly, you have to start from across the room, where you can feel the whole piece. And that’s what’s so cool about JP – you don’t just look at his paintings, you feel them. You should then walk closer to the part of it you’re drawn to, as close as you’re drawn, and then stop when you know you’re inside it. And then let go. Stop thinking, stop analyzing – just let go and let it wash all over you. Just be it.
When you get there, it’s like you can feel JP in the paint – his energy still flows from the canvas. Now that’s art.
This is No. 31 – I think he did 31 of them (or 30) – I’ll have to find out exactly. Maybe I’ll make it my goal to try to view all of them around the world, to see if together they tell a story or to see if you can feel different things in them.
I can already tell sitting here that there are people who get JP and people who don’t. A man just walked in the room with his family, 3 children and wife, and was visibly excited and said to his children, “This is Jackson Pollock. He is THE most important painter.” I love JP, but I didn’t realize there are people who consider him the best artist ever.
I was speaking with someone about coming to MoMA and sitting here in front of JP, and he said other people have mentioned or have done the same thing – that JP calms them down or that they just like sitting in front of it. I wonder what we all have that connects us like this?
And you can tell when someone really feels it. They’ll stand in front of the painting, usually directly in the middle, and just witness it. They stand still as a statue, like they’re in meditation, which they probably are.
What I found today is that when I first look at the painting, it seems really beige because the canvas is that color. But if I stare at it as if meditating on it, it turns black – all the black pops out and takes over the canvas, and it turns into a completely different painting. And one time it went all white – the white parts popped out and took over the piece. It’s really cool to experience.
Another thing I noticed this week is that the people who came through the room here mimicked the painting – it’s all a dance of chaotic yet symmetrical patterns of people making their way through the room. At one point it was like a ballet – people were coming in, turning, gliding, moving, even spinning – and there was a line in the painting doing the exact same thing. When they stopped, there was a splodge there to represent that also. At one point, the dance was perfect – everyone coming through the room was a perfect line of paint in the piece, and they were all moving in this perfect unison with each other – old people, college students, tourists, babies in strollers – all dancing together perfectly with each other and up in the painting. It was like the painting literally came to life. It was beyond surreal.
I’m off to India for a couple weeks, then Switzerland, then Sedona for a month, then Tennessee and Colorado, so I don’t know when I’ll be able to come back and see JP! Wish I could have stayed here longer today also – but it’s 4:20 and I’ve got packing, errands, and dinner plans. So, I guess it’s back to my other reality….
(This was written while sitting in my spot at MoMA, with a couple small edits when I typed it up. I couldn’t post it up here until early May when I got to Sedona – life’s been crazy busy – but all so good!)
Okay, I think it’s decided. I’m going to see if I can find where the 30 JP’s are and visit them over the coming years. And I’ll get photos of them all (to make it a little touristy….)
