<story><title>Jacksonpollock.org (2003)</title><url>https://jacksonpollock.org/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>erulabs</author><text>Pollock is wonderful, particularly in person. But more than I enjoy the art (Silver Over Black, White, Yellow, and Red in person is enough to bring me to tears), I really enjoy listening to people&amp;#x27;s anger ranting why its not really art, or why anyone could do that, etc. If art is intended to garner a reaction - Pollock accomplishes that in spades.&lt;p&gt;I personally find it wonderful and beautiful - the sf-tech crowds mocking the abstract and psychedelic tend to be a bit unaware where the world they both live and work in came from!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>brudgers</author><text>&lt;i&gt;I really enjoy listening to people&amp;#x27;s anger ranting why its not really art, or why anyone could do that, etc.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;The irony is that Abstract expressionism was used for Cold War propaganda after Harry Truman made his that-ain’t-art criticism of the pictorial works that were the State Department’s &lt;i&gt;Advancing American Art&lt;/i&gt; exhibit.&lt;p&gt;Pollock et al. were politically acceptable demonstrations of American freedom of expression because they are not critically engaged with social conditions. Being critical of America’s social disparities was what spelled the end of &lt;i&gt;Advancing American Art&lt;/i&gt; as a Cold War instrument. It was too much free expression for the Truman administration.&lt;p&gt;Don’t misunderstand me, I appreciate Pollock et al. But it’s why it took an immigrant to produce Frank’s &lt;i&gt;The Americans&lt;/i&gt; to follow on the artistic groundwork layed by the Pubic Works Administration in the depression years.&lt;p&gt;Pollock is safe because it doesn’t raise important questions about meat space. Rants about what is art are as far as it goes. It’s more tampon in a teacup than it is  Maplethorpe’s &lt;i&gt;X&lt;/i&gt;.</text></comment>
<story><title>Jacksonpollock.org (2003)</title><url>https://jacksonpollock.org/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>erulabs</author><text>Pollock is wonderful, particularly in person. But more than I enjoy the art (Silver Over Black, White, Yellow, and Red in person is enough to bring me to tears), I really enjoy listening to people&amp;#x27;s anger ranting why its not really art, or why anyone could do that, etc. If art is intended to garner a reaction - Pollock accomplishes that in spades.&lt;p&gt;I personally find it wonderful and beautiful - the sf-tech crowds mocking the abstract and psychedelic tend to be a bit unaware where the world they both live and work in came from!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>regulation_d</author><text>My opinion of Pollock changed drastically when I saw something in person. For me, it was Greyed Rainbow, which is completely uninteresting in a book and quite enthralling in person.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t think this phenomenon is limited to abstract expressionism though. Even being from Iowa, I didn&amp;#x27;t understand what was special about American Gothic until I saw it in person.</text></comment>