| RATING: | 80% |
| FORMAT: | DVD |
Human Wrongs
Abstract expressionism makes me feel somewhat like a National Socialist since it is clearly a degenerate art form in being wholly solipsistic, quintessentially self-indulgent and utterly-fraudulent. It is nursery stuff people can say almost anything about to claim its value; while never admitting it is nothing more than Western Art’s version of the Emperor’s New Clothes. It is expression - as such - with nothing specific to express except the neuroses of the so called artist: Art created by adult children.
One expresses either oneself (or what it is to be human): If the expressor is a nothing then his self expression will be nothing. If unconscious art is unmediated by prior thought and, thus, entirely spontaneous, it is hard to see the difference between it and, say, the art therapy daubings of a serial killer. Or, simply saying the first thing that comes into ones head.
Having said all that, this is a very good film about what constitutes modern Western art in its containing deeply committed performances from all concerned. The movie captures the artistic temperament (talented or not) perfectly, along with an apparently empty culture that has little to express other than the concept of the work itself (& any associated ideas) being more important than the execution. Nevertheless, if one has little to say, it is inevitable that the form will become more important than the content.
For a male artist, apparently, esthetic creation is as psychologically painful to him as birth is physically painful to women. But, is Jackson Pollock just a prolix alcoholic able to create great art or is he just a screwed up dipsomaniac able to manipulate words to suggest underlying ability? This film strongly allies itself with the former view.
The best epitaph for artist known as Jackson Pollock would be that no matter how abstract the artworks, the signatures are always realistic. For the film, it would be that for an exploration of the psyche of an abstract expressionist, it is strangely impressionistic.
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