Oor 'n papegaai en 'n omstrede skilder

Ek lees gister in ‘n koerant-artikel dat Billy Graham gesê het ‘n mens moet so lewe dat jy jou papegaai aan die grootste skinderbek in die dorp kan leen.

Lewenskuns. Spiritualiteit. Nie 'n vinger kan gesit word...

Die gedagte bly by my. Ek dink aan wat ‘n wyse kollega eendag vir my as ‘n lewensmotto gesê het: Jy moet altyd so oor mense praat dat wat jy van hulle sê waar hulle nie teenwoordig is nie, jy vir hulle in hulle teenwoordigheid kan sê.

Ek ken mense wat so lewe.

***

Maar terwyl ek so oor ‘n papegaai loop en dink, loop ek die volgende hoogs interessante storie raak wat iemand papegaai-skilderkuns noem, maar wat ook as aksie-kuns bekend staan. Dit gaan oor die bekende, omstrede en komplekse Amerikaans skilder, Jackson Pollock.  Die meeste mense sal hom ken uit die fliek van 2002 met die titel “Pollock” (met Ed Harris).

Die duurste skildery van alle tye was sy No.5 (1948) wat vir $140 000 000 verkoop is. 140 miljoen dollar.

Maar hierdie no 5 (1948) is ‘n stunning stuk werk: donker, verborge, woelende kleure van swaar wolke-agtige patrone met 'n ligte son-geel lyn wat heel fragiel en breekbaar in 'n swewende patroon van bo na onder in 'n dansende lewensritme gevloei word. Dink net as jy so 'n doek kan staan en bekyk as 'n lewensgrote skildery:

Hier is nog ‘n voorbeeld of twee van sy kuns: 

Watter sagte kleure dra, omring en raam die donkerder dele. Met net die suggestie van blou-grys (hemel, dynserige miswolke?) wat bly luier en verberg. En onder aan, half links, die twee rooi spatsels, mistiek, suggestief, perspektief op kleur. Die titel van hierdie werk is: Woud van betowering. (Of: Toorbos!).  Daar is dus sterk mistieke trekke, selfs in sy titels.
 

Hierdie een het hy "katedraal" genoem. Die kleure laat 'n mens aan No 5 dink. Iewers wil-wil dit ook groen suggereer, maar dan is daar die minuskule wit vonkerigheid bo-langs en dan die wit strepe wat oor die doek gesprei word en die donker sirkel-kringe onder. Dit is asof lig wil-wil deurbreek.

Sommige mense lag soms sinies oor sulke kunsstukke, asof dit 'n papegaai is wat in verf gedip en oor die doek gesmeer is. Of wat maagwerk gehad het. Skerp sinici het Pollock probeer ontmasker as ‘n foefie-kunstenaar. 

Totdat jy sy werk (aan die hand van iemand wat weet) bedink (meditatio).   

En totdat jy sien met watter ystere beheer en mag en gedetermineerdheid hy die skeppingsproses wil stuur (sien artikel hieronder).

Of: Totdat jy dit self probeer doen. En dan sit en bedink wat die verskil is.

Wat my verder tref in die inligting oor hoe hy geverf het, is hoe die afstand tussen die doek en die kunstenaar opgehef word. Pollock wil die doek as "objek" sien. Maar hy wil self in daardie objek wees. Hy wil met sy hele liggaam by die skeppingsproses teenwoordig wees. Self-implikasie. 

Vandaar sy spesifieke tegniek waar hy op die doek rondloop. (Sien die artikel hieronder). Sy skildertegniek self vertel al 'n hele verhaal (the "medium is die message," hoor ons mos in die formalistiese tradisie). Wat tel is ook hoe jy dinge uitbeeld - nie net in die vorm op die doek nie, maar ook in die aanwending van die materiaal op die doek.

En dan is daar die merkwaardige ekstasis wat hy self van vertel.  Hy skryf: “When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of 'get 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 comes out well.”

Dit is inspirasie. Kunstenaars deur die geskiedenis heen het sulke oomblikke van mistieke ekstase waar hulle in 'n oogwink allerskoonste dinge tot stand kan bring, kan skilder of kan skryf.  Dit kom nie dikwels nie. Dit is iets wat elke kunstenaar jaloers begeer. Maar jy moet dit afwag. Geduldig. En daarna verlang. Soms kom dit oor jou pad, weet hulle, vir 'n jaar of twee. In oorvloed. Of soms verdwyn dit vir dekades lank.

**

Hier volg ‘n bespreking deur die gesaghebbende Guggenheim museum (pragtige geboue in Manhattan en in Bilboa):

Selections from the Permanent Collection
Jackson Pollock (1912–1956): Enchanted Forest

About this work

Enchanted Forest, 1947

During the winter of 1946–47, Pollock instituted a new way of creating paintings. Moving around the unprimed canvas, which was laid flat on the wooden floor of his Long Island studio, Pollock poured, splattered, and dripped paint and enamel using his entire body in the process. This approach reinvented the methods and tools of traditional easel painting and came to be known as Action Painting, a style that demanded the total physical involvement of the artist. Pollock’s all-over style of painting avoided any points of emphasis producing intricate interlaced patterns that reflected Pollock’s gestures and movements around the canvas. His paints were thinned so they would flow more readily. Using sticks, basting syringes, and dried-out brushes, he worked from all sides, creating an edge-to-edge network of looping lines. Pollock explained, “On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting.”

Titles for Pollock’s paintings were added once the work was complete, frequently at the suggestion of others. Enchanted Forest suggests a fable or myth while also referring to the tangled lines typical of the artist’s drip paintings. In this work Pollock leaves large areas of white amidst the network of moving lines. The palette is limited to gold, black, red, and white.

Pollock provided an articulate summation of himself and his work:

Technic is the result of a need—
new needs demand new technics—
total control—denial of the accident—
States of order—
organic intensity—
energy and motion made visible—
memories arrested in space, human needs and motives—
acceptance

Pollock’s innovations helped to establish international prestige for American art while altering the traditional methods of painting and placing a new emphasis on process rather than product.

http://artscurriculum.guggenheim.org/lessons/collections_pollock_art.php

Hier is ‘n verdere beskrywing van Pollock se werk (let op die sagte titels wat hy vir sy werke kies)

Jackson Pollock: American painter. He was an important practitioner of Abstract Expressionism. He was born in Cody, Wyoming, into a poor sheep farming family and was originally interested in sculpture, but joined the Art Students' League of New York in 1929 and was taught painting by Thomas Hart Benton. He developed a romantic Regionalist style influenced by Ryder during the 1930s. As a member of the Federal Art project 1938-42, he met a number of avant garde artists (he exhibited with de Kooning in 1940) and discovered Picasso's work and Surrealism (he was part of the New York Surrealist exhibition in 1942 and wrote automatic poetry). In 1939, he underwent psychiatric counselling and came into contact with the ideas of Jung. He began a series of semi figurative pieces, using symbolism from Native American culture (Navajo sand painting) and primitive art, influenced by the Mexican Rivera and incorporating a heavily applied technique which suggested violent spontaneity (e.g. She-Wolf 1943, New York).

Pollock was already experimenting with Surrealist automatism, but after the War he settled in Long Island and began to develop the Action techniques for which he is best known, dripping and throwing paint onto large canvases which were laid on the studio floor and only cut once the work was completed. He produced his first such abstraction in 1945. The intention was to avoid a focus for the work, to be part of it during creation (actually walking over it), to treat it as an object and to work semi automatically ('painting has a life of its own'). His attitude was later influential to Performance artists and happenings.

Despite his abstraction, Pollock used evocative, descriptive titles for many of these works (e.g. Cathedral, 1947, Dallas). The mesh of drips and dashes, often textured by the addition of sand and other materials, created a floating spatial rhythm. In 1951, suffering from alcoholic depression, he reduced his colours and began to work with black enamels of unprimed canvas. Dreamlike figures began to creep back into his work (e.g. Portrait and Dream, 1953, private collection). Pollock died in a car crash in 1956.

(The Bulfinch Guide to Art History)

Sien ook: http://www.btinternet.com/~charles.nightingale/parrot_painting.htm

Lees ook die boeiende artikel oor Pollock in Wikipedia.