Blog 1

Pollock follows the life of artist, Jackson Pollock, during the later years of his life and his career. Beginning in 1949, the film exposes the tortured character of Pollock in his struggles to become a famous and respected painter. A number of devices are used throughout the film to subtly communicate who the characters are, insights about their nature, and an underlying message regarding what is going on in their lives. Pollock begins with no dialogue, yet it is clearly communicated to the audience that we are looking at Jackson Pollock through the art that is hanging in the background and the fact that he is signing autographs and camera flashes are going off. Pollock appears put together and happy, orderly in this scene as opposed to other scenes that are in the film , reflecting his success in his artistic career at that exact moment in his life. The crowd implies this successful aura that Pollock is experiencing. The camera then rolls back in time showing Pollock in a drunken stupor, falling over himself and his brother in a staircase, rambling on about this hatred for Picasso. These two scenes juxtapose one another and show the erratic behavior that Pollock was known for and how his successes or failures adversely affected his mood and behavior. Both vertical and horizontal lines are used to frame the scenes, as well as close-up shots, and the use of light and shadow, especially with the entrance of Lee Krasner, another abstract expressionist and Pollock's future wife, into the film and Pollock's life. The film displays his relationships with Lee Krasner, Peggy Guggenheim, who really helped to kick start his career, as well as his relationships with his mother and his brother. Ed Harris, both the star and director of the film, uses lingering, closely framed shots to portray Pollock's career and life. During the scenes that document Pollock's painting technique, Harris uses rapid music and fast camera shots to show movement of Pollock and his painting method. The film gives a real sense of scale for Pollock's paintings, especially in the scene in which Pollock rolls out the huge blank canvas and it fills up the entire screen.

The schematic structure of the artist's life is displayed a few times in the film. There isn't really much mention of the first few stages of the schematic structure, seeing as the film beings with Pollock already well into his thirties. In the "youth" stage, the artist is supposed to be discovered by a recognized artist or artistic authority. For Pollock, this figure is Peggy Guggenheim who gives him his first major commission. He develops his style only after he created the large-scale mural for the entrance of Peggy Guggenheim's townhouse. This development of his style is characterized by both a literal and figurative "breakthrough" moment, displayed by Pollock violently "breaking through" the wall in his apartment to make more room for the enormous canvas he will be using to paint Guggenheim's mural. It is here that Pollock develops his "action" style painting series. The "youth" stage is also portrayed through the comparison of Pollock's earlier works which look markedly like Picasso's art work and his drip-painting can technique which ultimately made him famous. The "maturity" stage can also refer to his major commission from Guggenheim as well as his first one-man-show, "Art of the Century", at Guggenheim's gallery in 1943. Clement Greenberg, as well known art critic of the time, also made comments on Pollock's art, calling his paintings "muddy" and with "pretentious titles." This recognition, albeit unsavory, situates Pollock's art career in the "maturity" stage as well.

Plato's Ion, which is a classical view of artistic inspiration, is comparable to the way in which Pollock's inspiration was documented in the film and in his life. In Plato's Ion, Socrates describes the artistic process and inspiration as a moment or act when there is a "divinity moving in you." Additionally, the presence of a muse is an integral part of the inspiration process for the artist or poet, according to Socrates. In Pollock's life, the figure of the muse can be found in his wife and long time supporter and advocate, Lee Krasner. Krasner is not so much a muse in the literal sense, as she is more a source of inspiration for Pollock through her intense devotion to him as an artistic genius and to his artwork. She even goes as far as to sacrifice her own painting career and passion for art, in order for Pollock to fully realize and successfully accomplish his artistic career and pursuits.