Jackson Pollock - Convergence

My first thoughts on analysing Jackson Pollock's 'Convergence' was that I was looking at a pleasing arrangement of coloured squiggles. I used to like Abstract Expressionism when I viewed it as decorative art - as something to hang on a wall to fit in with a room scheme. Then I grew tired of it. I know there is much more to this kind of art, and I don't intend to be dismissive, but I do find myself initially looking at the work from an aesthetic viewpoint. Once I get past this stage then I can look more deeply, but I do find this to be a problem for me that I don't usually have with photography.

'Convergence' is a four colour piece, co-ordinated using different paints with a background of black lines that seems to hold the 'design' very well. To review the work I really need to see it in its original form and at the correct size - which I understand is pretty big. Also, any painting would have texture that relates to the paint and its canvas which is lost when looking at a photograph. Once I began to spend time looking at the work I started to see patterns that evolved into faces and body parts - torsos, legs, a fleeting expression on two faces pressed close together - chest hair. Focusing on different colours bring alternative elements of the work into the foreground and it feels like the landscape of the painting changes and flows. The mind goes into free form and I understand from my research that abstract expressionism uses this style of painting to free up the mind and search for universal unconscious meaning. Pollock himself underwent Jungian Psychoanalysis and his drip painting method from which 'Convergence' is derived is a technique that helped the artist to express automatic unconscious emotions. The different coloured lines, swirls, whoops and whirls show depth in the work and I suppose the viewer brings what ever they want to the image when they view it.

This is not the sort of work I would usually make as a photographer. I can see though that free association of thoughts occur when looking at work that has no apparent narrative structure. The eyes and the mind work together looking for meaning and because of an absence the viewer constructs their own ones. This is a useful technique to be aware of that can be inserted into narrative sequences.