Last month I read a very interesting article about American artist Jackson Pollock on MSNBC website: according to physicists and mathematicians who conducted a careful analysis of the artwork, Jackson Pollock was an intuitive master of the flow of fluids, relying on the laws of physics to turn his splashes, drips and drizzles into the iconic abstract creations they came to be.
Claude Cernuschi, a professor of art history at Boston College, said in a statement: ‘When Pollock is creating his pieces, he is enlisting gravity as a participant — as a co-conspirator […] He has to understand how pigment is going to behave under the laws of gravity. He has to anticipate what is going to happen and work accordingly. There is both spontaneity and control, just as there is in the improvisation of a jazz musician‘.
Interesting, isn’t it? If you like the work of Pollock just like I do, this way of understanding the work of the artist, governed by the laws of fluid dynamics, offers a new point of view on his creativity even to his most fervent critics… Who would have guessed?
