Post Modern Synthesis

          Sigmund Freud was a defining figure of the Post-Modern Era, and his most basic ideas heavily influenced the arts, including the artwork of Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol. Freud revolutionized the idea that emotion and reason are not two separate entities but two interrelated, interdependent parts of our psyche, and he used reasoning and (psycho)analysis to unearth others’ emotions. Likewise Freud supported the idea of art that utilizes the subconscious – of the tangible serving as a link to and a siphon of the intangible thoughts and feelings of the subconscious. It is with this attitude that Jackson Pollock, famed abstract expressionist best known for his “drip painting” style, created his art, which resembles seemingly haphazard splatters, splotches, and drops of paint on canvas. This “action painting” and movement within the painting mirrored his oft-volatile personality, and in this way tapped deep within his subconscious to create something that is natural, spontaneous, and unlike any art that has ever been called “art.” This was almost like painting his dreams while awake, and can also be seen as constant, purposeful (and nonsexual) Freudian slips on canvas. By focusing on his emotions, Pollock was, according to Freud, also making rational, and therefore acceptable, art. Andy Warhol, innovator of pop art and revolutionary in his definition of “art” as simply a visual representation, played off the other side of Freudian thought – namely, logic and rationalism. Warhol did not believe in “fine art” – he believed that all art is worthy of being called art, and he actually valued the commercialism and reproductability of his works. He expressed himself, in the sense that he painted the subjects he personally liked and in the specific way that he chose to, but his creations can also be seen as mechanical and without much interpretation, yet still worthy of the title “art.”

Tiffany Chen

Melody Sue

Lucy Zhao

Wylie, Per. 5, Team 2

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