Jackson Pollock: Quotes about nature

Jackson Pollock was American artist. Explore interesting quotes on nature.

Jackson Pollock: 66 quotes23 likes

“The modern artist is living in a mechanical age and we have a mechanical means of representing objects in nature such as the camera and photograph. The modern artist, it seems to me, is working and expressing an inner world – in other words – expressing the energy, the motion and the other inner forces.... the modern artist is working with space and time, and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating.”

Jackson Pollock

Source: 1950's, Interview by William Wright, Summer 1950, pp. 139-140

“Well, method is, it seems to me, a natural growth out of a need, and from a need the modern artist has found new ways of expressing the world about him. I happen to find ways that are different from the usual techniques, which seems a little strange at the moment, but I don't think there's anything very different about it. I paint on the floor and this isn't unusual – the Orientals did that.”

Jackson Pollock

Source: 1950's, Interview by William Wright, Summer 1950, pp. 142-143

“The important thing is that Clyff Still – you know his work? – and Rothko, and I – we've changed the nature of painting… I don't mean there aren't any other good painters. Bill [ Willem the Kooning ] is a good painter, but he's a 'French' painter [Pollock meant: a French-abstract style]. I told him so, the last time I saw him after his last show,… all those pictures in his last show start with an image. You can see it even though he's covered it up, or tried to…. Style – that's the French part of it. He has to cover it up with style.. [answering Seldon Rodman's question]”

Jackson Pollock

In an interview (1956); published in Conversations with Artists, by Seldon Rodman, New York, Capricorn Books, 1961, pp. 84-85
1950's

“My concern is with the rhythms of nature... I work inside out, like nature.”

Jackson Pollock

Quoted in Leonhard Emmerling (2003) Jackson Pollock: 1912-1956 Taschen, p. 48
in posthumous publications

“The idea of an isolated American painting, so popular in this country during the thirties, seems absurd to me, just as the idea of a purely American mathematics or physics would seem absurd... And in another sense, the problem doesn't exist at all; or, if it did, would solve itself: An American is an American and his painting would naturally be qualified by the fact, whether he wills or not. But the basic problems of contemporary painting are independent of any one country.”

Jackson Pollock

As quoted in Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics, ed. Clifford Ross, Abrahams Publishers, New York, 1990, p. 138
1940's, Art and Architecture (1944)

“I am nature.”

Jackson Pollock

Attributed by Lee Krasner (1964) in " Oral history interview with Lee Krasner, 1964 Nov. 2-1968 Apr. 11 http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/krasne64.htm", interview with Dorothy Seckler for the Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art. <br class="br">In Krasner's words: 'When I brought Hofmann up to meet Pollock and see his work which was before we moved here, Hofmann's reaction was — one of the questions he asked Jackson was, do you work from nature? There were no still lifes around or models around and Jackson's answer was, 'I am nature.' And Hofmann's reply was, 'Ah, but if you work by heart, you will repeat yourself.' To which Jackson did not reply at all.' <br class="br">in posthumous publications

“Naturally, the result is the thing [in painting] and it doesnvery vibrantt make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.”

Jackson Pollock

Source: 1950's, Interview by William Wright, Summer 1950, p. 145