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The Presence of Pollock
Posted on September 8, 2003 in Book of Days Culture Writing Groups
Note: This is part of a series based on exercises from A Writer’s Book of Days. It’s something of a rebellion against the Friday Five and similar tupperware content memes.
Today’s topic: Black is the color I remember.
That and a blood red. That’s what I remember of the Mark Rothko painting that I saw at the San Jose Art Museum about five years ago. And I must say that the experience of being in the same room as the canvas cannot be duplicated in the best plate.
I remember the greasy, volatile lines of Jackson Pollock from somewhere. And a canvas, deceptively painted white and yet — when you examined it — proved to have been worked on extensively by the artist.
After the critique group tonight, we went over to Opah, a “Hawaiian” restaurant where the meals averaged $16 a plate.
Bill J. declared that he did not think that Pollock or Rothko or any of the extreme abstractionists qualified as art. Put a thousand different people in front of the canvas he said and you will not be able to derive any one emotion of idea that Pollock had intentionally dripped onto the canvas. He thought of Pollock and Rothko as clever frauds, pawning off what he called a mere decorative aethestic as Art.
I disagreed. Put a thousand different people in front of the Mona Lisa and you will get one thousand different reactions. Bill J. said but the Mona Lisa had eyes, a style of dress, a landscape in the back. Those symbols united the people. I said that Pollock had lines, colors, and textures. Everyone who saw a Pollock in the flesh could not help but notice that.
I’d sum up our difference in perspective like this: Bill J. (who doesn’t do art of any kind as far as I know) wants to be able to name the elements in what he sees and connect them to real world objects. I feel that there are things which are unnameable. The best art practices the presence of those.
Want to participate? First either get yourself a copy of A Writer’s Book of Days by Judy Reeves or read these guidelines. Then either check in to see what the prompt for the day is or read along in the book.
Tomorrow’ topic/prompt: Write about a car trip.
