“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.”

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

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The idea of an isolated American painting, so popular in this country during the thirties, seems absurd to me, just as …" by Jackson Pollock?
Jackson Pollock photo
Jackson Pollock 33
American artist 1912–1956

Related quotes

Lyndon B. Johnson photo

“It is not so much that he was an American sociologist… as it was that he determined what American sociology would be… What made Paul unique was not his involvement with ideas or his involvement with people, but his ability to stir the two together.”

James Samuel Coleman (1926–1995) American sociologist

James Samuel Coleman; as cited in: Wilbur Schramm, The Beginnings of Communication Study in America: A Personal Memoir 1998, p. 63; About Paul Lazarsfeld.

Vincent Van Gogh photo

“More and more it seems to me that the pictures which must be painted to make present-day painting completely itself... are beyond the power of one isolated individual. They will therefore probably be created by groups of men combining together to execute an idea held in common.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

(June, 1888) in Letters to Émile Bernard (1938) New York. See also John Rewald, History of Impressionism (1946) p. 402.
1880s, 1888

Maureen Dowd photo

“The idea of American exceptionalism doesn't extend to Americans being exceptional.”

Maureen Dowd (1952) American journalist

New York Times column (September 20, 2008)

Sinclair Lewis photo
Harry V. Jaffa photo

“It was a terrible war. The idea that the cost of the war is due to Lincoln is simply absurd. It was a terrible war because the country was deeply divided, and the question of the future of the nation, whether or not it would be based upon principles recognized as principles of individual liberty, or whether the idea of one race dominating another race would be accepted as a means for governance.”

Harry V. Jaffa (1918–2015) American historian and collegiate professor

2000s, The Real Abraham Lincoln: A Debate (2002), Q&A
Context: It was a terrible war. The idea that the cost of the war is due to Lincoln is simply absurd. It was a terrible war because the country was deeply divided, and the question of the future of the nation, whether or not it would be based upon principles recognized as principles of individual liberty, or whether the idea of one race dominating another race would be accepted as a means for governance. Let me just read one short statement here that might interest you. "Since the Civil War, in which the Southern States were conquered, against all historical logic and sound sense, the American people have been in a condition of political and popular decay.... The beginnings of a great new social order based on the principle of slavery and inequality were destroyed by that war, and with them also the embryo of a future truly great America." That has been the position of defenders of the Confederacy from Alexander Stephens through Thomas DiLorenzo. Do you know the man who said that was Adolf Hitler?

Dennis Prager photo
Henry Adams photo

Related topics