Full Fathom Five - Pollock

The painting I have chosen for analysis is Jackson Pollock's "Full Fathom Five", which hangs on the fourth floor with his other paintings, "Autumn Rhythm" and "Lavender Mist No. 1". This painting is a representation of gestural abstraction, which consists of the application of paint in a spontaneous and sporadic manner. In comparison with his other works, this painting is smaller in scale. The palette consists of mainly black, white, and blue/turquoise, with speckles of orange. Besides paint, Pollock also included solid items such as nails, keys, cigarettes, coins, and buttons. These do not draw attention to themselves, but rather emulate the paintwork in attempt to portray the emotion of the artist.

Clement Greenberg would have described this style as "Painterly Abstraction" or "Abstract Expressionism", which crosses between a painterly and abstract style. Some qualities of this style involve linear clarity and a more physical approach to the application of paint. In Full Fathom Five, both are inherently connected with each other as the movement of each application transforms the artwork in its entirety. The rapid movement and direction of the paint causes the painting to appear open and infinite.

Greenberg came up with a term called "Post-Painterly Abstraction" which signifies the step-up from the painterly style and keeping the impression of 2-D flatness of the canvas. This is certainly not the case with Pollock's painting as there are multitudes of layers of splatters which, as a result, creates depth. This also renders the painting to give the sense of infinite space to the viewer; even though it is restricted to the particular canvas size, the audience is able to picture the piece in a broader view. Greenberg may have initially praised Pollock for his painterly work that defined the abstract expressionist style, but would have later found it too mannerly. Its glory was short-lived before it later gave the impression of standardization, which was too school-like.

As any other Abstract Expressionist painter did, Pollock attempted to create something that did not necessarily refer to history. Rosenberg would have praised this painting for its attempt to look "new", more specifically, to portray the artist's personality. The direction and duration of each application is different, but still echoing the character of the artist. Rosenberg describes this as an "action painting", when the artist is the actor and the canvas is his stage. It does not take the viewer to watch a clip of Pollock on Youtube to see how he produced the artwork. The movement of the artist is automatically mimicked in display. To even further push the concept, the canvas represents the mind of the artist and the paint the content of the mind. In the mind of the artist, the canvas is not a canvas anymore, but it is him. The handling of color and paint represents the perception of a feeling or whatever the artist is thinking at that moment.

There are infinite possibilities as to how this painting could have been rendered in terms of direction, stroke, duration, and concentration. Pollock approached his canvas with the intent of giving himself wholly, not trying to portray anything that is necessarily recognizable to the viewer. It is the discovery of the self and defiance towards what is the standard or school of art.