Is Pollock's piece sold for more or less than Rothko's? Would you pay more for Pollock's work or Rothko's work? 

Applications are due Monday, September 22!

Rothko's Orange, Yellow, and Red goes up for auction at Christie's:

Browse through the list of facts and record the following on your foursquare in the appropriate squares: 
a. Something Jackson Pollock said that seems meaningful to you. (Artist Quote)
b. 3 facts that show Jackson Pollock in a good light. (What's their story?)
c. 3 facts that show Jackson Pollock in a negative light. (What's their story?)
d. A fact about his career or art. (What is the big deal?)

1. When the German-born American painter Hans Hofmann invited Pollock to study with him and work more from nature, Pollock replied: “I am nature.”

2. For a time, Pollock sprayed paint onto the canvas through a syringe.

3. In the summer of 1938, Pollock had a nervous breakdown, which left him in a psychiatric care unit for a few months.

4. While living in Los Angeles, Pollock’s eldest brother, Charles, kept the rest of the family informed with what was happening in the art world by regularly sending home issues of The Dial and American Mercury.

5. Some people would buy Pollock drinks at the bar just to see what kind of bizarre antics he would get up to when drunk.

6. In January 1951, Art News published a list of the best exhibitions of 1950. The top three shows belonged to Pollock.

7. After Pollock and his wife, Lee Krasner, moved into their Long Island home, Pollock spent the entire winter fixing up the house without painting a single thing.

8. While still a young man, Pollock once traveled by freight train around Oklahoma and northern Texas, where he did a few short stints in jail.

9. Pollock once had a job cleaning statues for the Emergency Relief Bureau. He also briefly worked as a janitor with his brother, Sanford, at a children’s school where their eldest brother, Charles, taught.

10. When a teenager, Pollock once wrote, “People have always frightened and bored me consequently I have been within my own shell.”
11. Before becoming a painter, Pollock was primarily interested in sculpture.

12. Betty Parsons, a former dealer of Pollock’s, said Pollock was born with “too big an engine inside.”

13. Through a friend, Pollock was introduced to the spiritual beliefs of the Theosophical Society and the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti. Pollock attended several camp meetings in Ojai, California.

14. For a time, Pollock underwent psychiatric treatment for his alcoholism, including sessions with Jungian psychoanalysts Joseph L. Henderson and later Dr. Violet Staub de Laszlo. Both used Pollock’s drawings as a therapeutic device.

15. One of Pollock’s favorite authors was Herman Melville. Pollock named his dog “Captain Ahab,” after one of Melville’s most famous characters.

16. Pollock once wrote in a letter to his father, “I’ll never be satisfied until I’m able to mould a mountain of stone with the aid of a jack hammer to fit my will.”

17. According to his wife, Lee Krasner, Pollock began titling his later works with numbers because “numbers are neutral. They force people to look at the picture for what it is — pure painting.”

18. In 1930, Pollock decided to drop his birth name, “Paul.”

19. During the summer of 1950, photographer Hans Namuth took hundreds of pictures and shot some film footage of Pollock at work. After the session, Pollock had his first drink in two years, and began drinking heavily again until his death.

20. In 1941, Pollock was declared unfit for military service.

21. In the late 1930s, Pollock filled several notebooks with sketches of Picasso’s Guernica.

22. In 1936, Pollock met his future wife, Lee Krasner, at a party. The two didn’t meet again until 1941.

23. In his Los Angeles high school, Pollock was considered a troublemaker. He wore long hair, unconventional clothing, and was expelled several times for clashing with authorities. In a letter to his older brother, Charles, Pollock wrote, “this so called happy part of one’s life youth to me is a bit of damnable hell.”

24. Pollock once said, “There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn’t have any beginning or any end. He didn’t mean it as a compliment, but it was.”

25. For a time, Pollock took on the pseudonym, “Hugo.”

26. When Pollock’s father, LeRoy, died on March 6, 1933, Pollock did not have enough money to return home for the funeral.

27. While living on Long Island, Pollock converted his barn into a studio. Since the barn had no electric lights, Pollock worked strictly by sunlight.

28. Although Pollock’s parents were both Presbyterians, Pollock and his four older brothers received no religious education as children.

29. During the 1930s, Pollock occasionally stole food and gasoline because of his dire financial situation.

30. When Pollock was a boy, he enjoyed exploring old Native American sites around his home near Phoenix.

31. In high school, Pollock shared studio space with some of his friends in a chicken coop, which was decorated with postcards of classical art.

32. Pollock habitually worked late and slept through the morning.

33. In a letter to his father, Pollock once wrote, “A good seventy years more and I think I’ll make a good artist —being an artist is life itself — living it I mean.”

34. The first of Pollock’s paintings to be acquired by a museum was The She-Wolf, bought by MoMA for $650 on May 2, 1944. Pollock said of the painting: “She-Wolf came into existence because I had to paint it. Any attempt on my part to say something about it, to attempt explanation on the inexplicable, could only destroy it.”

35. In 1955, Pollock obtained a passport that he never ended up using.

36. Pollock’s problems with alcohol began one summer when he was conducting topographic surveys of the Grand Canyon. He was 15 years old.

37. For one summer, Pollock worked as a lumberjack in Big Pines, California.

38. Near the end of his life, Pollock told Dr. Elizabeth Wright Hubbard, his homeopathic physician, that he wasn’t painting anymore because he wasn’t sure he had anything to say.

39. Pollock once said that the only American painter who interested him was Albert Pinkham Ryder.

40. Friends and family described the young Pollock as childish, troubled, insecure, restive, and driven.

41. On July 21, 1937, Pollock was arrested for drunkenness and breach of the peace.

42. Pollock would often wander around New York City at night. He marveled at the contrast between the dark shadows and the skyscraper’s bright lights.

43. One of Pollock’s most influential teachers, Thomas Hart Benton, believed the most important lesson a burgeoning artist could learn from the Old Masters is the process of how they painted.

44. Another artist (Pete Norman) saw some of Pollock’s paintings lying on the floor and commented that Pollock’s art was possibly the most original American art he had seen. Guggenheim immediately put Pollock on contract.

45. When Pollock was 8, his father, who was an abusive alcoholic, left the family, and Pollock's older brother, Charles, became like a father to him. Charles was an artist, and was considered to be the best in the family. 

46. Pollock never graduated from high school.

47. Lee Krasner, Pollock’s future wife, first heard of Pollock when she was invited to participate in a group exhibition that included his work, called French and American Painting.

48. Pollock enjoyed telling spooky stories about the West involving wild stallions, white wolves, lost gold mines, and mysterious unattended campfires.

49. Pollock’s father, Le Roy McCoy, acquired the surname “Pollock” when his neighbors, the Pollocks, adopted him after his own parents had passed away within a year of each other.

50. Just after 10 p.m. on August 11, 1956, Pollock, who had been drinking, crashed his car into a tree less than a mile from his home. Ruth Kligman, his girlfriend at the time, was thrown from the car and survived. Another passenger, Edith Metzger, was killed, and Pollock was thrown 50 feet into the air and into a birch tree. He died immediately.

Visit jacksonpollock.org  to create your own digital Jackson Pollock inspired art. It is super cool! You do NOT want to miss out on this. 

Find a Book
You will carefully select a used book to complete an altered book throughout the year. While you are encouraged to complete the altered book during free-time in class, you should expect to dedicate time at home to complete the project.


Theme
After you have selected a book you will thoughtfully select a theme around which your art will focus. Example themes might include: A Cloudy Day, Film Noir, Narrative, Atlas, Strangers, Heroes, Warnings, Hypothesis, Dinosaurs, The Attic, The Human Heart, Mystery, Animal Kingdom, Living in the Past, I’m Afraid of…, The Best Place in the World, Strong Bones and Teeth, Eyeballs, The Digestive System, Bakery Items, Winged Beasts, Irritating Habits, Games, Germs, Numbers, Division, Metaphors, Tomorrow, Adios, Making Plans, Tiny, America’s Past-times, Bigger and Better, Dunk It, Landscapes, Texture, The Parlour, Shoes, Skyscrapers, Cityscapes, What Lies Beneath, Liar! Liar!, Fairy Tales, Home, Ancient Greece, Comfort, Negative Space, Charts and Graphs, Evidence, The Road Trip, Modes of Transportation, Summertime, I’ll Miss You, The Enchanted Forest, Teenagers,  Shadows, The Dentist’s Office, The Waiting Room, Symphony, Visual Jazz, Instruments, Rock and Roll, Running, Down Under, Kristelnocht, Ancient Egypt, Rocks, Mammals, A Waste of Time, Impressionism, Abstract Art, Form, One Point Perspective, The Gold Rush, The May Pole, Flora and Fauna, A Tiger’s Lunch, Nocturnal, Sleepless, The Eiffel Tower, The Dome of the Rock, etc.

My theme is: _____________________________________________

Five questions one might ask about my theme:

1)       ___________________________________________________

2)       ___________________________________________________

3)       ___________________________________________________

4)       ___________________________________________________

5)       ___________________________________________________

Example: Theme: Back from the Dead

1)       Do you believe in ghosts?

2)       Where do we go after we die?

3)       What is an angel?

4)       If you die today, what would you have left unfinished?

5)       What do you hope to accomplish before you die?


Sketchbook Pages
Your book will several Sketchbook Pages. Each of these pages will visually express the answers to the questions you pose or your knowledge about your theme.

 
Unit Pages
Your book will include art from five units:

1.       Abstract Expressionism

2.       Pop Art

3.       20th Century Sculpture

4.       Photography

5.       Harlem Renaissance

6.       Architecture since the Industrial Revolution

On these pages, you will document what you have learned about the unit through visual composition.


New Media and Techniques
You will also be required to explore new media throughout the book. New media and techniques may include but are not limited to the following: Pocket, Pop Up, Cut Out, Xerox Transfer, Stitching, Collage, Masking tape, Scratch art, Ripping, Weaving, Nail Polish, Feathers, Buttons, Fabric, Glitter, India Ink, Print making

Five new media or techniques you can add to this list:

1)       ________________________________________________

2)       ________________________________________________

3)       ________________________________________________

4)       ________________________________________________

5)       ________________________________________________

 
Rubric
I expect each completed altered book page to be neat, organized, and original. Each page will be evaluated using the rubric below:

___15 points        Student filled the page.

___8 points          Student purposefully manipulated the medium to create a neat work of art.

___8 points          Student carefully organized the elements of the art composition.

___8 points          Student work is a one-of-a-kind (original).

___8 points          Student work documents his/her exploration of the unit/theme.

___3 points          Student recorded the unit/theme, title, and design challenge in neat handwriting on the back.