As an unknown artist, (sign painter by trade) I enjoy reading books & watching movies about art in all eras.
That I enjoy just about everything Ed Harris has done is just icing on the cake. Or in this case, another master brush stroke.
I saw this movie when it first came out - and finally snagged the DVD for under 3 bux. Yeh. As an artist, I'm starving - will wait 20 years for a deal or do without . . . Lol
Anyway, regarding this movie, it is well done. All the scenes, wardrobe, cast, production & direction, locations, etc - all that is there - but what's best is the 'feel' is there - the moods.
The lifestyle, the weather, the emotional moods; angsts, fears, contentment, etc.
It is not really all that common for all these things to come together so adequately in a movie.
Harris portrays Pollock as so many gifted artists (& writers etc) are; Conflicted. Manic. Depressive.
In this portrayal, Pollock seems to have rapid cycle manic-depression - if you know what that is, then of course you understand.
The art: I've had endless disagreements over abstract art with several friends trying to explain it.
It is not explainable in terms of hoity-toity, snobbish, condescending terms, phrases & paragraphs, tho critics & writers like trying to outdo each other at it and which leads to the most ludicrous, nonsensical, assuming comments that cannot be interpreted with any logic.
In this film, I like how those critiques are read and portrayed with the same condescension & airs they were initiated with, making fun of and showing exactly how pompous these art explanations are.
In my opinion, abstract art is about nothing more than catharsis. The catharsis of expressing & getting it out of your head. The catharsis of physically feeling a medium with your fingers or hands combined with your internal feelings emerging & merging with your external - whether applying a medium to a substrate, or molding a shape, or creating a melody, or putting lyrics together, or dance, or writing.
The reason it can so often be inexplicable is bc it so often intensely personal. Abstract art is not so much for the viewer to see, but for the artist to see their own emotion.
To identify - the average person does it doodling, sewing, gardening, golfing, etc. Activities one enjoys doing & feeling say for examples, the dirt in ones hands, watching plants emerge, the way the golf club feels - the sound of the ball whizzing away. All hobbies do something to help a person express something. Typically a desire to feel accomplishment, to relax - again with the 'ect' bc these things are endless . . and an artist does it with paint, words, clay, music, etc.
It might be a fact that any child could sling paint exactly like Pollock. (or dance, or write, or sculpt, expressing themselves, yes, but (usually, generally) playing.
But the entire difference for the artist (not the viewer) is what is seen from the artists eyes (of any age) the contrasts, forms, textures, even such tiny details as how light reflects on the edge of something & a million other things - things raging from the internal accessing the brain to move & get these things out into the tangible.
And that is what this film portrays so well.
That I enjoy just about everything Ed Harris has done is just icing on the cake. Or in this case, another master brush stroke.
I saw this movie when it first came out - and finally snagged the DVD for under 3 bux. Yeh. As an artist, I'm starving - will wait 20 years for a deal or do without . . . Lol
Anyway, regarding this movie, it is well done. All the scenes, wardrobe, cast, production & direction, locations, etc - all that is there - but what's best is the 'feel' is there - the moods.
The lifestyle, the weather, the emotional moods; angsts, fears, contentment, etc.
It is not really all that common for all these things to come together so adequately in a movie.
Harris portrays Pollock as so many gifted artists (& writers etc) are; Conflicted. Manic. Depressive.
In this portrayal, Pollock seems to have rapid cycle manic-depression - if you know what that is, then of course you understand.
The art: I've had endless disagreements over abstract art with several friends trying to explain it.
It is not explainable in terms of hoity-toity, snobbish, condescending terms, phrases & paragraphs, tho critics & writers like trying to outdo each other at it and which leads to the most ludicrous, nonsensical, assuming comments that cannot be interpreted with any logic.
In this film, I like how those critiques are read and portrayed with the same condescension & airs they were initiated with, making fun of and showing exactly how pompous these art explanations are.
In my opinion, abstract art is about nothing more than catharsis. The catharsis of expressing & getting it out of your head. The catharsis of physically feeling a medium with your fingers or hands combined with your internal feelings emerging & merging with your external - whether applying a medium to a substrate, or molding a shape, or creating a melody, or putting lyrics together, or dance, or writing.
The reason it can so often be inexplicable is bc it so often intensely personal. Abstract art is not so much for the viewer to see, but for the artist to see their own emotion.
To identify - the average person does it doodling, sewing, gardening, golfing, etc. Activities one enjoys doing & feeling say for examples, the dirt in ones hands, watching plants emerge, the way the golf club feels - the sound of the ball whizzing away. All hobbies do something to help a person express something. Typically a desire to feel accomplishment, to relax - again with the 'ect' bc these things are endless . . and an artist does it with paint, words, clay, music, etc.
It might be a fact that any child could sling paint exactly like Pollock. (or dance, or write, or sculpt, expressing themselves, yes, but (usually, generally) playing.
But the entire difference for the artist (not the viewer) is what is seen from the artists eyes (of any age) the contrasts, forms, textures, even such tiny details as how light reflects on the edge of something & a million other things - things raging from the internal accessing the brain to move & get these things out into the tangible.
And that is what this film portrays so well.