• DOI:10.1086/424159
• Corpus ID: 194040790

Orozco and Pollock: Epic Transfigurations

@article{Polcari1992OrozcoAP,
  title={Orozco and Pollock: Epic Transfigurations},
  author={Stephen Polcari},
  journal={American Art},
  year={1992},
  volume={6},
  pages={37 - 57}
}

• S. Polcari
• Published 1 July 1992
• Art
• American Art

Jackson Pollock, Composition with Vertical Stripe (detail), 1934-38. Oil on canvas, 22 /2 x 30 in. Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe By 1938, after several years of study and emulation of Thomas Hart Benton's work, Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) became increasingly introspective in both his personal and artistic life. He developed a more expressionist, acerbic, and violent art that, while still symbolic in subject and powerfully rhythmic in composition, seemed more attuned to the world's and his own growing somberness. By 1938 it had become evident that, with civil war in Spain and the remilitarization of Europe, a second world war was inevitable. Paralleling these exterior crises were personal crises. In 1938 Pollock was hospitalized for alcoholism, and, as the psychological and emotional difficulties that would plague him the rest of his life became manifest, he began four years of Jungian psychotherapy. At this moment, Pollock turned decisively toward Mexican art. Such a choice seemed appropriate because Mexican art represented conflict and struggle on a national, even epic, scale. Pollock drew especially from Jose Clemente Orozco (1883-1949), whose allegorical art was well known and respected in the United States. Orozco's historical panoramas of strife set an example for emotional expression that few in his era could match. Pollock, however, did not simply embellish and expand upon Orozco and other mural artists, as he had done with Benton. He recast Orozco, rerouting images and themes of upheaval and renewal from the exterior to