Jackson Pollock's Pictorialism

Clement Greenberg and Michael Fried both are working out of the modernist perspective in the 1950’s and 1960’s. This perspective is a framework that describes how art could be understood during this time period. Modernist art in both Greenberg and Fried’s perspectives appeals to the concept of medium specificity, how this ends up affecting the pictorial space and in the end the meaning of the work as understood by the artist/viewer. In this writing a discussion on the relevant aspects of this modernist perspective will be mentioned in respects to artist such as Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman.
Greenberg and Fried both respond to the art appearing in this time in key terms of visual response and visual effects onto the viewer. In respects to this idea an artist such as Jackson Pollock is a clear example of how medium specificity …show more content…
Jackson Pollock’s work as was admired by both Greenberg and Fried is the cornerstone of their understanding of modernism at this time for his ability to push the practice of focusing on line and color to a new level. In his work Autumn Rhythm of 1950, Jackson Pollock creates an larger than life painting that is done completely using his dripping method. By focusing on the movement of the paint while dripping the paint evenly across the canvas, Pollock has given the canvas the same treatment in each spot. His end result makes the viewer focus on the basics, of the canvas itself , line and color dripped on. Because of this focus on the line, color and application of paint Jackson Pollock was used by Greenberg and Fried as an example of someone who has pushed the limits of their understandings of art into a new field. Pollock was not interested in the subject matter of the work but rather the process of creating the work. He was physically involved with his canvas in the process of