“Pollock’s finest paintings… reveal that his all-over line does not give rise to positive or negative areas: we are not made to feel that one part of the canvas demands to be read as figure, whether abstract or representational, against another part of the canvas read as ground. There is not inside or outside to Pollock’s line or the space through which it moves…. Pollock has managed to free line not only from its function of representing objects in the world, but also from its task of describing or bounding shapes or figures, whether abstract or representational, on the surface of the canvas.”
Pollock’s paintings were not paintings like people knew paintings. Hey considered them events, and his immersion in them was key to their success. They were liberations from aesthetic values. Ironically, they in turn, created a unique aesthetic one that polarized its critics.
And now, you too can paint like Jackson! I stumbled upon this site the other day. The mouse path has a function related to speed of movement and thickness of dribble. Clicking changes colors. Have a looksee.
