Pollock

My blog is morphing into an art appreciation blog! I'm going to have to cut off my ear and live in a garret. I post this painting in honour of Dirk from Queensland, Australia. It is of course, Jackson Pollock's "Blue Poles" painted in 1952. I don't recall the year that it was purchased at massive expense by the National Gallery of Australia but this canvas caused a huge debate about Australia's priorities and its cultural identity.

Pollock was born in Wyoming cowboy country in 1912, passing away in 1956. To be truthful, I have never given his painting much thought. I hate to deride any modern art because I always think that maybe I'm missing something but until somebody convinces me otherwise I think Pollock's work is over-rated. It's paint, lots of paint, dribbled, splashed, dropped, teased - but what does it all mean? And why are those Australians below studying the canvas so intently? What is it that they see that I don't? The confusion of the twentieth century? The quest for another non-naturalistic form of expression that might better suit the modern world? Pollock's troubled soul? Frankly, I'd gain far more from looking at Australian aboriginal art - cave drawings and suchlike... Amusingly, Dirk says he's usually a "Palestinian" when it comes to art, so what was it about this canvas that blew him away thirty years back? Help!