Jackson Pollock’s famous “Mural” is part of a new exhibition at Malaga’s popular Picasso Museum that aims to introduce a whole new generation of art lovers to abstract expressionism.
According to Jackson Pollock’s own words, published in “My Painting” in 1947 in the edition of “Possibilities”: “…in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing. It is only after a sort of getting acquainted period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting turns out well.”
His words describe what was to become a hallmark of art in the middle of the 20th century and the start of a new trend. Some art experts ascribe the starting point of this trend to Pollock’s “Mural”, a painting created in 1943. This is the 3rd stop-over for the artist’s work, as the exhibition is currently touring Europe. Already displayed in Venice and Berlin, “Mural” exudes a pioneering spirit that is hard to resist.
Capturing Energy and Movement with Colour
Created in just one night, the work measures six metres in width and ca. 2.5 metres in height. According to Will Gompertz’s book, “What are you looking at? 150 years of modern art in the blink of an eye”, Pollock had already finished his painting the next morning and, without realising, created a new artistic movement in the process.
The technique Pollock used, essentially dribbling paint onto a canvas in an apparent random fashion, made him a legend in modern art history and an icon. Killed in a tragic traffic accident aged just 44, Jackson Pollock was the first American to feature in the History of Art and he greatly influenced the New York art and cultural scene.
According to Manuel Fontán, Exhibitions Director of the Juan March Foundation, Pollock “represents the paradigm of a wild artist, with no past, the icon of a continent that had very little history, who died young. In the end, he became legendary as an artist who would not allow himself to be assimilated into the usual system of art”.
Art critic and editor Fernando Huici believes that Pollock, “in the imagination of popular culture, is seen as a hero of that pioneering generation”.
The Mural in Malaga
To give the work its due place in art history, the work takes centre stage at Malaga’s Picasso Museum, where the exhibition on abstract expressionism also features icons of the 20th century art world like David Smith and Antonio Saura, Roberto Matta and Andy Warhol.
Interestingly, the exhibition reveals potential links between Picasso and Pollock. The American artist Pollock was clearly influenced by Picasso’s “Guernica”, which he saw for the first time in 1939.
“There’s no doubt that Guernica affected Pollock because it was in fact a portable mural and Mural reflects the artist’s fascination with Picasso. It’s also violent and represented the destruction of the Second World War,” explains David Anfam the exhibition’s curator.
Picasso inspired Pollock, because the young artists was always astonished to find that every time he believed he had discovered a new, previously undiscovered form of art, Picasso had already explored it. “For Pollock, Picasso was the one to beat,” the curator mused on the subject of how the Malaga-born artist inspired the American painter.
Unlike Picasso though, Pollock did not venture into a plethora of other art forms, but remained true to his medium: he continued to experiment with painting, expressing energy and movement with colours in all his works.