Expressing the Age: How the Painting of Jackson Pollock Displayed the Political Culture of Abstract Expressionism

Abstract

This paper examines how the work of the artist Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) displayed the political culture of Abstract Expressionism, a predominantly American art movement that flourished from the mid-1940s to late 1950s. Using primary sources such as interviews and essays, the author makes an argument for the ways in which Pollock’s work displays the movement’s heritage and aims. The paper concludes by arguing that Pollock’s technique embodied the autonomous attitude of Abstract Expressionism, and worked with the painting of contemporaries to make an antipolitical comment on modern times by suggesting a return to man’s primal past. Specifically, Pollock’s art displayed the political culture of Abstract Expressionism through the creation of art as a unifying factor of humanity, the use of negation to make a personal statement, and the belief that art was its own referent. This research is certainly relevant to studies of art history, but also to social, cultural, and intellectual history, and the humanities. More work needs to be done on exploring the politics of Pollock’s work in light of World War II-era America.