By means of an executive summary, this research project explores the dynamic relationship between painting and performance through the following resources:

• Hans Namuth’s film of Jackson Pollock painting
• Interview with Catherine Wood curator of A Bigger Splash
• The “Pollockian Performative” [from Book: Body Art: Performing the Subject]

In the summer of 1950, Hans Namuth photographed and filmed the abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock. Although Pollock felt inhibited by the presence and direction of Namuth during filming, Namuth’s film captures the essence of Pollock’s work which at the time launched Pollock to the fore as being one of America’s leading contemporary artists.

Whilst I was already familiar, and an admirer of Pollock’s work, this short film, Jackson Pollock provides a unique and interesting insight into the artist’s thought processes during the making of his work. Despite the apparent chaos and disorder of his artwork, Pollock maintains that the works are no accident, claiming that they are an expression of his feelings rather than a means to illustrate them.

It is hard to conceive that Pollock saw himself as a performance artist, when the film was screened for the first time at the MOMA, New York in 1951 it presented Pollock’s work as a performance. This piece captivated many as it reveals some of the mystic of an artist at work. This performance in the process of painting was the fore-father of performance art and action painting and led Harold Rosenberg describing it as American Action painting “… an act rather than a final object”. (Jones, 1998 p. 52) During the 1950-60s Pollock was often explicitly cited for this new conceptualisation of art. (Jones, 1998 p. 53)

Namuth’s Jackson Pollock film has influence generations of artists, a legacy of performance that is echoed by Catherine Woods, the curator of the 2012 Tate Modern exhibition. Woods articulates the significance Pollock’s work, and the relationship between art and performance through select artworks by David Hockney, Eleanor Antin and Marc Chaimowicz. Pollock’s work Summertime (1948) is displayed flat on the floor with Namuth’s film screened onto the gallery wall as part of the exhibition. 

Directly opposite is Hockney’s A Bigger Splash (1967), a figurative painting of a sun filled LA scene showing a swimming pool with a building in the background. The splash, in contrast, is gestural and applied in an abstract manner. The juxtaposition of these two artworks naturally guides the viewer to draw comparison between the art and artist.

The relationship between painting and performance is explored further with the screening of a short movie showing Antin in the act of applying makeup.  In this case the performance is a means to achieving an outcome, but only on the terms of how the artist may wish to be seen.

Jones talks of Yves Klein, the performative and progressive nature of his art. She reflect how Klein takes the performative element of art creation several steps further, making himself the conductor of the piece’s creation – literally.  Dressed in a tuxedo, watched by a formally dressed audience, Klein walks onto a set with an orchestra playing a single note, mirroring his use of a single colour, his own Yves Klein Blue. He directs nude women to cover themselves in his blue paint and to press themselves against canvas under his direction as he flounces around the stage. Removed, distant, but in control, as if expressing his self-imposed superiority and dominance.

When reflecting on the influence and legacy of ‘Pollockian Performative’ amongst other artist, Jones references Gutai group, Niki de saint Phalle’s Tir (shooting), Lynda Benglis, Shigeko Kubota and Keith Boadwee all of who apply performance art in both unique, unusual and personal ways.

Weather artist were inspired, or rebelled against the concept of Pollockian Performance, it carved a path for artists to explore the relationship and blur the boundaries between painting and performance.

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References

Jones, A. (1998). Body art, performing the subject. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, pp.53-102.

Namuth, H. (2010). Jackson Pollock by Hans Namuth. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cgBvpjwOGo [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020].

Tate. (2012). A Bigger Splash: Painting and Performance. [online] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/bigger-splash-painting-after-performance/bigger-splash-painting [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020].

Tate. (n.d.). ‘A Bigger Splash’, David Hockney, 1967 | Tate. [online] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hockney-a-bigger-splash-t03254 [Accessed 31 Jan. 2020].

Wood, C. (2012). A Bigger Splash: Painting and Performance – TateShots | Tate. [online] Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/bigger-splash-painting-after-performance/bigger-splash-painting [Accessed 20 Jan. 2020].