Some Art is accidentally created.
You think Pollack intended to drip paint on a canvas?
He certainly made it trademark style, though.
Yes. I do.
I thought the female figure was more disjointed to represent her moving more. The male figure is more still and almost presenting her, while she does the fancy footwork.
But definitely boobs, not a scarf.
That was sort of my take, I just looked at it and thought “male artist.”
Most male artists paint women and men differently in a way that isn’t flattering to women. This wouldn’t be the first time I saw a style where the figures were presentational, but the women were more scattered, & disorganized and even less representational than the male figures.
From one painting, you can’t usually tell whether the artist is saying something about women, and what it is, whether he is expressing a general opinion about women, and what it is, or whether he is doing this unconsciously.
Alison Bechdel of “The Bechdel Test (for movies)” has a less well-known term she coined called “The Blondie Effect,” by which women in cartoon are always drawn with exaggerated figures and pretty faces. Some women are supposed to ne hags or nags, but any woman who is not is drawn like Blondie. Men in comics. Are just rectangles.
Her point is that is just seems to happen. It seems to be the way men see the world.
I’ve seen films of him working; I can confirm that he did. And he did it with frightening intensity.
Also referred to, in the movie and TV business, as the male gaze. One prominent example I saw once was from Star Trek: The Next Generation: Three characters are climbing a ladder, and the camera follows the two men as they climb, so their faces stay centered in the frame, but when they show Troi, the camera stayed stationary, so you saw her whole body moving through the frame.
Why don’t we have a hair-raising emoji?
Roger Ebert once generally threw mud on all movies where a guy stalks a woman, even the “turns the tables” ones, where she ends up with the gun on him, if they have scenes that show the stalker’s POV, essentially asking the audience to “come stalk with us.”
Uh, clearly yes, if you have actually ever seen his work.
I thought they were earrings swinging with the dance moves.
To me the female forms seem like they are referencing African tribal fertility and maternity sculpture’s stylistically. And FWIW German Modernism was influenced by African tribal art in general.
I’d have to see more of his works to have an opinion as to whether the women are usually more stylized. But my initial take was that she was drawn to represent her motion, which is greater than his.
Computer programs exist that can accurately distinguish paintings by Pollock from paintings by other artists trying to imitate Pollock’s style. This wouldn’t be possible if Pollock were just doing his work haphazardly or accidentally.
That makes sense! They are incredible up close. Way bigger than you’d expect and actually 3D with all the layers of paint. They are nothing like random splatters so someone thinking they just happened by chance is pretty funny.
Okay, possible new take: the top things are scarves, the bulge everyone thinks is her pregnant belly are the boobs. Not sure why she’s got legs facing the opposite direction but I presume it’s that she’s moving a lot. I agree with the take upthread. If So You Think You Can Dance has taught me anything, it’s that the men in a couple’s dance are usually more stationary and serve a supporting role while the women do pretty things and move around a lot.
I see zero violence in this, or mysogyny or anything. Even though I find the art style unsettling I can only really see it as two people dancing.
Yes.
Did he intend to the very first time it happened? I’ve no idea. But when he turned the result into a painting and put it up for exhibit or sale, instead of painting it over or throwing it out, that was certainly deliberate.
I presume that the piece we’re discussing was put out into public by the artist, not stolen by somebody out of his scrap pile.
(Also, while I’m not an expert, I can’t imagine anything I’ve seen of Pollock’s being produced by an accidental drip. The faint beginnings of such a piece, maybe.)
Or, as a gay man described it to me, the woman gets to twirl, and the man stands there and looks pretty.
Hmm, do you have a cite for that term and its attribution to Bechdel? I’m not doubting you, I’m just not finding any further information with those leads. This appears to be much more commonly associated with the “Sexy Dimorphism” trope (see classic Oglaf cartoon “Dimorphism”, reasonably SFW).
I think the same. They look like they’re doing the Lindy Hop or something, and the hand gesture by the male figure has me hearing “23 skidoo” in my head. The woman even seems to have a hairstyle of that age.
I don’t perceive the figure as pregnant.
I do, but I’m late for work
post this evening