Art is an expression, but all forms of expression need to evolve to suit the time and society but even more for the message the artist wants to convey. Claude Monet is one of the household names in the art community beyond just during his time alive, yet Pollock was consider the American artist who revolutionized the art community with his artwork. How oil painting on canvases evolved from Claude Monet – Water Lilies to Jackson Pollack – One: Number 31. Sometime in the 16th century, oil emerged as a basic painting material in Venice. By the end of the century, Venice artists had become proficient in using oil as a painting material and the exploitation of oil’s basic characteristics applicable to painting, especially in their successive layers of glazes.
Some of the first artists of oil were people like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, El Greco or Raphel. From there painting evolved into baroque and continued to evolve and slowly become a stable material for the artist to express themselves. Within the 18th century pigmentations of oil like Prussian Blue came about and was the first synthetic oil pigmentation compared to the expensive alternative of ultramarine. The water lilies are 3 panels of canvas painted by Claude Monet. French artist Claude Monet painted the water lilies from 1914 to 1926, each panel about 6 ½ feet high and 14 feet wide.
Many believe that the large 3 canvas does not only allow the viewer to see the art but to immerse themselves within the painting. Lilies were painted late in Monet career, during the time his work became more abstract like, this may have some to do to Monet vision loss and proof behind that theory exist behind the fact Monet took a eye surgery. The entire painting is water yet the water or pond is not available within the painting, while nothing is being defined the world of water lilies seems to always be shifting.
Lilies are a blurry mix of brush strokes. In the darker areas of the painting where it seems the water is in the shadow of what it seems like a pine forest, I think this was only for a factor of depth. In contrast, the lighter areas reflect the sky and glemmness of its reflection, monet achevied this by using blue and green like a peacocks tail. clusters of green lily pads are few yet fill large sections of the pond, hints of pink lilac and yellow help convey the water lilies itself. Lilies express the lifelong commitment to art by Claude Monet and its reflection to light.
Most viewers have a sensation of relaxation or serenity after viewing the art. When abstract expressionism became a popular mode of painting in the early 1950s the lilies became a highly viewed artwork, while prior to abstract expressionism, the lilies was seen with little interest. It was almost as if the lilies was the pre-cursor for was lying there unnoticed and appretiated. But another form of work who was fully abstract completely extracted the subject matter out of the art and simultaneously added the views of the viewer and changed how modern art was to be expressed. Jackson Pollock or The American Painter created the One: Number 31, finished in 1950 is only one of 3 wall size artworks created in the autumn to summer.
The artwork clocks in at 8 feet and 10 inches high and 17 feet and 5 inches wide, this painting is so large that if standing in the center you feel the sensation of never endings going away from your field of view. Pollock created a abstract work with no hint of representation of any kind by using colors like somber, shades of black, blue, gray, brown and tints of white using a mix oil and enamel paint on a off-white background.
One: number 31 is painted in Pollock’s famous drip method, this method has such a hard time explaining how it looks that its best just to explain how it was painted instead. Pollock laid the canvas on the ground and walked around the painting using one color at a time but pouring and dripping paint all over the canvas. Although he would not pour the paint straight from its original can, rather he dripped it from brushes or from sticks he used to mix paint or create custom paint.
As Pollock walked around, he would fling his arms in a swinging gesture to create a trail of paint in long, blobby rope across section desired of the canvas, some curved, some straight but all were various lengths. Using this drip method, was able to control where he would like fine, thin lines or bulky think curves to help compete for his art, Pollock continued until the artwork was densely full of ropes and blobs of paint covering the canvas.
The bare off-white canvas is visible in many places, especially in the edges of the unframed painting, one could even imagine the sensation of it uneven and wobbly surface up to following the lines of paint with your fingertip. Pollock’s One: Number 31 revolutionized the world by creating artwork that can connect every individual person to the artwork and in turn, all those people would be interconnected with each other via the art.
What astonishes me is the fact that the painting has no subject matter at all compared to any other famous work has been with a subject matter. If you truly think about it art started with a small clay “women” and the only form of subject matter there was female or women, then art evolved to include more subject matter in hopes to express or convey messages. Pollock went beyond the clay women and without words expressed the fact that artist can connect emotions to their viewers without the need of subject matter and relying on skill and art methods. Art is an expression, but all forms of expression need to evolve to suit the time and society but even more for the message the artist wants to convey.
Claude showed even in his end of fame and with eyesight become troubling that the artist can help art change and evolve and nothing should stop and artist from completing artworks. Jackson Pollock took the subject matter and completely threw it out the window but masterminded a method to help viewers to express how they feel with just methods and skills that are known by the artists. Both artist and paintings changed the art community in their own respective ways yet the art community on behalf of oil painting will never be the same, in fact, the art community is forever changed after pollock not just oil paintings.
