Product Description
This digital document is an article from Arts & Activities, published by Publishers' Development Corporation on April 1, 2009. The length of the article is 484 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: In the style of Jackson Pollock.(art lessons for preschoolers)
Author: Barbara Egenes
Publication: Arts & Activities (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2009
Publisher: Publishers' Development Corporation
Volume: 145Issue: 3Page: 44(2)

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

Product Description
The abstract paintings of the American artist Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) are among the highest achievements of 20th century art.One of Pollock’s masterpieces, "Blue Poles," is an American painting which has become an Australian icon.A key part of the art history of Australia, its controversial purchase in 1973 by the National Gallery of Australia was a sign for some of Australia’s economic and cultural dependence on the United States.For others it was a sign that Australia was entering a new world in which traditional ties could be broken, and cultural and economic allegiances were open to negotiation.

This catalogue brings together a selection of Pollock’s works that help to situate "Blue Poles" in the broader development of the artist’s career.Ranging in date from 1933 to 1952 and covering painting, drawing, and printmaking, the works show the diversity of Pollock’s interests, which included Mexican mural painting, French Surrealism, and Native American art.

The essays look at "Blue Poles" from three different perspectives.The introduction examines the artist’s life and work leading up to 1952, followed by a discussion of "Blue Poles" and its place in Pollock’s oeuvre.Another essay discusses the first exhibition of the painting in new York in 1952 and identifies an important shift that was taking place in the artist’s work.The last essay takes a personal look at the reception of "Blue Poles" in the United States and Australia from 1970s to the present. ... Read more

Product Description
No modern artist is more controversial than Jackson Pollock, whose life is the subject of a new feature film starring Ed Harris. With an intense, troubled personality that many see reflected in his radical "drip" paintings, Pollock was the first American painter to be hailed internationally as an innovator. Even before his death in a drunken car crash in 1956, he was mythologized as Abstract Expressionism's quintessential bad boy. But he was also respected for his sincerity, loved for his sweet nature, and envied for his brilliance. Today Pollock's legend looms larger than ever, inspiring poets, playwrights, composers, and choreographers, as well as visual artists. The film Pollock starring Ed Harris as Jackson Pollock, Marcia Gay Harden, Val Kilmer, and Jennifer Connelly is set to be released late Fall 2000. His art, never popular in the conventional sense, has a growing cadre of dedicated enthusiasts. Why is Pollock such an enduring touchstone of American culture? This collection of writings, interviews, creative responses, and personal revelations - many never before published or long out of print - examines the multiple dimensions of his impact and influence, and proves that the real Pollock is even more fascinating than the myth. The book includes never before published art, photos, letters and interviews from the Pollock-Krasner House archives, new contributions by actor/director Ed Harris and musician Patti Smith, and interviews with Patsy Southgate and Willem de Kooning, as well as Clement Greenberg, Peggy Guggenheim, Hans Namuth, Frank O'Hara, Jeffrey Potter, Norman Rockwell, and Barney Rossett. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

received this paperback quickly
I received this book about Pollack quickly and found it a fascinating read. It gives many points of view and input of his contemporaries and is the best book about him I have found.

Great source of material
This is a great collection of information on Pollock. One of the greatest things to note is the inclusion of material from after his death in 1956, his influence on society. This includes editorial cartoons, poems written about and inspired by Pollock and his work, as well as scripts from plays based on his life. I would have to say that if you were looking for a good introduction to the man, the artist, and the influence he had/has on contemporary society, then pick this collection up. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (7)

Creative Inspiration for kids
Action Jackson
By Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan
2007, Square Fish, Holtzbrink Publishers
Robert F. Sibert Honor Book

Review by Debra Louise Scott

This is an "imagined" biography of the artist Jackson Pollock. The narrative is lyrical, almost poetic, as the authors describe what they imagine would have been going through Pollock's mind as he created his improvisational abstracts. The words made me want to pick up my own dusty art supplies and throw some paint around to try to capture the song of a bird or the intersections between the trees.

This would be an excellent book for a children's art class, to encourage them to put their whole selves into their work and not be tied to what they think the adult wants them to create.

At the back of the book is an actual biography of Pollock, a section on notes and sources, and a bibliography for more information. I would recommend that the teacher or parent have a little familiarity with his work before picking this one up to read to the children.

Great Book!
A fantastic book that captures the essence of Pollock's life in a children's format. I hope my son enjoys his art as much as I have. This is a great way to introduce children to this historic artist.

Art as process
When modern art is brought to the table, the question for the untrained is quite often: Is this art? What makes art? Can I do this? For such questions, answers always vary. It is art if you think it is art even if it may not be good art. The final consensus is that it is art if it challenges and sustains. Such art is universally held to be art.

Early on, modern art broke tradition, broke stereotypes, and set the art world on its heels. Until this time artists tried to capture a realistic experience--people, objects, landscapes--and put them on canvas. The moderns were the first to ignore the boundaries of the canvas. In fact, iconoclasts that they were, they acknowledged the confines of the canvas and its two-dimensional world and started experimenting with new techniques. The Impressionistic painters were the first, then the Post-Impressionistic painters went jumps ahead. Instead of painting broad realistic pictures, they began defying shapes, colors, time.

Jackson Pollock represents one segment of this new modern art, that which is called "action painting," or "spatter painting." This book, "Action Jackson," details Jackson's technique of creating art and making the viewer feel and appreciate his vision and told simply enough for a child to understand.

How did Jackson work? He lay out a huge canvas on the floor of his studio, studied it, then spattered house paint across it--directly from the can, from a stick, a brush. He worked over a series of days to get everything just right.

His vision was to lay out colors and patterns and the intermixing of colors and patterns to create a canvas that spoke of something more cosmic than a bowl of apples. For Jackson the process of painting said as much as the final product. This book beautifully conveys the idea of his vision and his process and his final product. I never dreamed a writer and an illustrator could capture the essence of Pollock's work in one thin children's book, but this most definitely does.

Perhaps the success of this book in capturing Jackson's style and work earned it an Honor Award in the Robert F. Siebert contest, and a New York Times Best Book of the Year, and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. "Action Jackson" was published in 2002. Jackson Pollock died in a car crash in 1956.

Great book
I am am Elementary Art teacher and I use this book in my classroom. The children love the story. I personally like how the children can get into the world of "Action Jackson" without knowing the actions of Jackson.

Well done
This book is an unusual children's book and about a character whose artwork will appeal to children.Although his life is not an uplifting story, the book picks up on the important parts and gives a feeling for what "Action Jackson" was all about.His freedom to create what he wanted and put his feeling on canvas is an important message to children who need to know that there are many way to be creative.That is it is OK to put their feeling into their art without worrying about whether it is "right" or "good".It is a quiet book about an artist who was quiet but whose life was certainly active as was his art. ... Read more

Product Description
Jackson Pollock was one of the most innovative painters of the 20th century. While Picasso and Braque's Cubism shattered the tradition of single, fixed-point perspective, and Matisse broke with the notion of naturalistic color, Pollock abandoned the tradition of easel painting and executed his paintings on the floor, some on a monumental scale. He developed a way of working in which he poured, dripped, or splashed the paint onto the canvas, allowing the pull of gravity to play a full part in the execution of the work. Walking around the painting, at times standing on it, Pollock became immersed in the act of painting. The source of his art, he claimed, was the unconscious. Pollock's radical approach to abstract painting was underscored, however by a residual interest in the future which, until recently has consistently been ignored in interpreting the celebrated dripped paintings. In examining the nature of Pollock's painting, Jeremy Lewison discusses Pollock's rivalry with Picasso, the impact of Jung, the meanings embedded within the works, the context in which they were seen, and the mythology which surrounds his persona. This is a wide-ranging and stimulating introduction to one of the most challenging and influential artists of the 20th century. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Arts & Activities, published by Publishers' Development Corporation on April 1, 2002. The length of the article is 1194 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Abstract Expressionism. (Classroom Use).
Author: Guy Hubbard
Publication: Arts & Activities (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2002
Publisher: Publishers' Development Corporation
Volume: 131Issue: 3Page: 29(3)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
Great exhibition catalog featuring art of the 1950s from the United states. 40 color and black and white illustrations of works by American artists including Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Guston, Gottlieb, Still, Stamos, Newman, Kline, Newman, de Kooning, Hartigan and other artists. Includes brief biography / chronology of each artist.Softcover. 95 pages. Measures 8 1/2 by 9 1/2 inches. Interesting book / exhibit catalog, nicely illustrated. ... Read more

Product Description
A study of abstract expressionism as seen in the works of Jackson Pollack, Willem de Kooning and other New York School artists in the wake of World War II. The author argues that the work of these artists reflects an attempt to reformulate individual identity through psychology and philosophy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Lejas study
.It is very interesting & solid study about New York School of Art& Jackson Pollock.I wiil write more when I finish reading the book that makes me pleasure.It is increasing my knolewdge essential to understand better such problems like unconscious in abstract expressionism.The book shows cultural context of the movement. ... Read more

Product Description
Great book featuring Modern and Contemporary American artists. 80 color and black and white illustrations of works of art. Painting, sculpture, photos of artists' studios, drawing. Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism. Illustrated artists include Jackson Pollock, Joseph Cornell, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Edward Hopper and other artists. Includes bibliography.Softcover. 301 pages. Measures 9 by 12 inches. Interesting book, nicely illustrated. ... Read more

Product Description
Great auction catalog from Christie's New York featuring painting from the Modern era. Abstract, Surreal and Modern paintings. Illustrated artists include: Jasper Johns, Braque, Delaunay, van Doesburg, Gris, Klee, Kurt Schwitters, Ben Nicholson, Mondran, Miro, Leger, Pollock, Motherwell, de Kooning, Calder, Stella, and other artists. Includes estimated auction prices.Black cloth hardcover with illustrated dust jacket. Unpaginated - 85 pages. Measures 8 1/2 by 10 1/2 inches. Nice auction catalog, nicely illustrated. ... Read more

Product Description
Great book featuring Modern art and artists and the museums of the United States. 20 color and black and white illustrations of works of art. Illustrated artists include Pollock, Jasper Johns, Rodin, Degas, Frank Stella and others. Includes notes / bibliography.Gray cloth hardcover with illustrated dust jacket. 267 pages. Measures 7 1/4 by 10 inches. Interesting book, nicely illustrated. ... Read more

Product Description
Great exhibition catalog featuring the art of the mid 20th century. 38 color illustrations of art works by Modern painters, sculptors. Illustrated artists include: Cy Twombly, Frank Stella, Mark Rothko, David Smith, Robert Rauschenberg, Brice Marden Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, Roy Lichtenstein, Guston, Diebenkorn, de Kooning, Joseph Cornell, Calder and other artists. Painting, sculpture. Includes black and white illustration of photographic portraits of the artists.Gray cloth hardcover. Unpaginated - 45 pages. Measures 8 1/2 by 10 1/2 inches. Interesting book / exhibit catalog, nicely illustrated. ... Read more