Jackson Pollock Cathedral Analysis

Stylist Analysis Jackson Pollock the world renowned drip painter is often one of the artists that almost everyone knows on the spot. Cathedral, 1947 is a painting held in the Dallas Museum of Art and was created using enamel and aluminum paint on canvas. Measuring at a 71 1/2 x 35 1/16 inches, this is no small painting. Cathedral, is comprised of organic shapes rather than geometric. The entirety of the work is the product of paint dripping off of a paintbrush. This controlled chaos is something that Pollock was a fan of, often mentioning that he can express his art without even having to touch the canvas with the paintbrush. The work consist of thicker and thinner lines that were created by taking the paint brush closer to the canvas or …show more content…
Neither the foreground nor background contains three-dimensional objects to be modeled. The painting is simply one dimensional, lacking three-dimensionality that is used to discuss volume in a painting. There are no subjects, or objects that can cast shadows to help present their roundedness or three-dimensionality. When it comes to balance Cathedral is very asymmetrical (lacking symmetry) because, it does not have the same contents mirrored on both sides. However, in terms of weight symmetry it appears to be balanced since the value and number of lines on the left is indistinguishable from the lines on the right making it appear to be weighted evenly. The negative space is the white paint in the background that is used to further emphasize the other colors and black in the foreground. Making the foreground, primarily the non-white colors, and the positive space. In the work the curved lines of spatter from the paint dripping is repeated across the whole work, occasionally changing when Pollock switches from a wooden stick to paintbrush. Pollock’s style has not changed from work to work significantly so overall his technique has stayed