Art Appreciation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Art Appreciation - Essay Example The â€Å"Number 1† painting is also known as the Lavender Mist. It is one of the most famous of Pollock’s paintings using his â€Å"drip technique.† Here, a visual prejudice blinds the viewer to the appreciation of real qualities beyond their visual experience as the dripped skeins of colors and the sensation of their existence in a deep space produce the aura of a lavender mist. (Peacock 1995, 207) As with most paintings in Abstract Expressionism, Number 1 features a natural focus on expressivity manifested in gestures as evident in the border of handprints, the body is logos, literal mark-making, among others. The idea is that a painting is not merely a painting, but instead, the painter – his body and his self-expression - is the painting or at least one with it. For me, â€Å"Number 1† is an example of fine art because it shows the exuberance of the American contemporary art, particularly in Abstract Expressionism. While the masses may seem to be offended with â€Å"Number 1† because they cannot make out the meaning visually, the painting communicates to the emotion. It banks on the response or at least the impression of people in the context of their view of reality. Also, as Pollock, himself explained: â€Å"It seems to me that the modern painter cannot express the present age of the airplane, the atom bomb, and the radio in forms of the Renaissance or of any other past culture.† (Gilbaut 1985, 246) And so, in a gigantic piece he sought to capture the very essence of his subject matter and was successful in it. The major reason why Willem de Koonings painting "Excavation" is a masterpiece for me is that it translated and condensed what critics call as our period of anxiety within the four corners of the canvas. The visual impact of the intertwined flashes of eyes, teeth, lips gives the impression of a seething crush in form and it