For

Senior Years Students

Curriculum

VCE Art/Studio Arts

Aim

To understand and respond to the materials and techniques employed by Jackson Pollock.

Preparation

To do this activity you will need to:

• Read the information for Theme One – Postwar Abstraction in the United States.
• View the work either online or in the exhibition.
• Research through the library or Internet.

Individual Task

List the various paint types and tools Jackson Pollock used in making Untitled (Green Silver).

After carefully observing Jackson Pollock's Untitled (Green Silver), describe in approximately 20 words the surface quality and marks he made using this method.

Research Questions

Research floor-based sand mandalas by Native Americans. These are made by trickling fine coloured sand, pollen, or powder onto a base of neutral sand. What is a mandala?

How did Jackson Pollock's observations of this method affect his own technique?

Group Task

Discuss your response to this work with others.

Discussion Questions

Susan Davidson has written about the intense period between 1947 and 1950 when Pollock made Untitled (Green Silver):

"Here, not only did Pollock move away from a reliance on traditional figuration and subject matter, but he broke free from the standard use of drawing and painting implements, usually abandoning their direct contact with the surface. Instead he worked from distances above the picture plane, using dripping, pouring, and splattering techniques – methods that were not necessarily Pollock's invention alone but that he pushed to new extremes".

Discuss your opinion about this commentary.