| Artist: | Pollock, Jackson |
|
|---|---|---|
| Title: | Portrait and a Dream | |
| Date: | 1953 | |
| Nationality: | American | |
| Context: | Post WWII, NY School | |
| Movement: | Abstract Expressionism | |
| Materials: | oil paint on canvas | |
| Subject: record of how Pollock's art stemmed from his own psychic explorations and Jungian therapy; here he paints his dream and a self-portrait; focus on the existential expression of inner being. Style: Psychic automatism or stream-of-consciousness, inspired by the Surrealists. Context: existentialism ("existence precedes essence"); alone in the void (alienation); the Cold War: post-Hiroshima; the Soviet Union gets the bomb in 1949; the 50's beat generation (pushing to the edge of one's consciousness.) Jungian analysis (the collective unconscious; the archetype; mythic structures embedded in everyone's unconscious). | ||
