Robert Motherwell and T. S. Eliot

Robert Motherwell

T. S. Eliot

Robert Motherwell

Retrospection: Clarence H. Steele, Mark Tobey, and Me

Clarence Steele and Don Mangus

Clarence Steele

Mark Tobey

Mark Tobey

Mark Tobey

Mark Tobey

Don Mangus

Mark Tobey

One of the paintings I grew up with was this stylized scene of a rooster and chickens behind wire, painted by Clarence H. Steele (1910-1988). It was much more "Cubistic" in approach than most of the landscapes painted by the other artists that dad knew. 

Later in life, curious, I asked dad how he came to own the Steele. He answered simply, "I saw it at an art show, liked it, and bought in on the spot."

Once dad was giving our family friend, noted watercolor painting legend Edmond "Jim" Fitzgerald a tour of his collection hanging on the walls. and when Jim saw the large canvas, he immediately piped up -- "This artist has studied with Mark Tobey." Jim was absolutely correct.

Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, and Grace Hartigan, 1957

Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, and Grace Hartigan

Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko: Paint It Black

Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko

I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore, I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes

I see a line of cars and they're all painted black
With flowers and my love, both never to come back
I see people turn their heads and quickly look away
Like a new born baby it just happens every day

I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door, I must have it painted black
Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts
It's not easy facing up when your whole world is black

No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue
I could not foresee this thing happening to you
If I look hard enough into the setting sun
My love will laugh with me before the morning comes

I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes

I want to see it painted, painted black
Black as night, black as coal
I want to see the sun blotted out from the sky
I want to see it painted, painted, painted, painted black, yeah

Franz Kline: The Vital Gesture

Franz Kline

Franz Kline

Franz Kline

Franz Kline

Franz Kline

Franz Kline

Franz Kline

Franz Kline began his career as a figurative painter, but in the late 1940s, he used a projector to enlarge one of his drawings of furniture onto the wall. Kline was intrigued by the resulting abstraction: “A four by five-inch black drawing of a rocking chair -- loomed in gigantic black strokes which eradicated any image, the strokes expanding as entities in themselves, unrelated to any entity but that of their own existence.” 

From this moment on, Kline would dedicate himself to creating large-scale, black-on-white abstract works. “I paint the white as well as the black,” he once said, “and the white is just as important.”

The dynamic curves and slashes of his works may seem totally spontaneous, but many of his so-called action paintings, were carefully reproduced from preliminary studies. Many of Kline’s works, though non-representational, seem to suggest through their titles and through the stark, pulsing compositions the bridges, railroad tracks, and machinery of America. Kline’s material of choice -- inexpensive, low-viscosity house paints -- also points to the artist’s interest in industry and consumerism.

Jackson Pollock: Fractal Dimensions

From "The Aesthetic Brain" by Anjan Chatterjee, "...The physicist Richard Taylor determined that Jackson Pollock's early paintings have "fractal dimensions" of around 1.45 -- the dimensions found for many coastlines. Later, when the works became more complex and 'rich,' the fd climbed as high as 1.72. Studies have shown that most viewers prefer artificial images with a fd of 1.3 to 1.5 (neither too regular nor too random."

From the Wikispaces article "Fractals in Art":

"Jackson Pollock was a gifted Abstract Expressionist artist who had a talent for creating fractals. At first glance, his art seems like a random conglomeration of paint. Critics complained that Pollock's work was utterly insignificant and could be easily replicated by simply splattering paint on a canvas. 

However, through closer examination, each of Pollock's movements were deliberate, each paint drip carefully planned, to create a harmonious artwork.

Jackson Pollock

But how does one determine whether his work contains fractals? One way is to measure the degree of fractal dimension -- the measure of self-similarity - and "fractal displacement" -- the level of fractal dimension at different locations. 

Below is a graph a measurement of both of these properties of Pollock's painting, 'Number 14' through the use of the 'box-counting' method in which sections of Pollock's work is covered with a number of computer-generated squares (represented as N(L)). This is repeated with differing square sizes (represented as L). Using an equation linking N(L) and L, values for fractional dimension (represented as D) can be calculated and graphed. As seen by the graph, the D values are linear, but its gradient is what determines whether a pattern is fractal. 

The typical accepted fractal dimension value for natural fractal patterns range from 1.25 to 1.3. Analysis of the graph reveals that Number 14 has a fractal dimension value of 1.45, significantly larger than the accepted fractal dimension value and thus, more complex patterns.

Jackson Pollock

Measure of fractional dimension of Pollock's painting, 'Number 14'

Jackson Pollock

Perhaps what is more interesting is the method in which Pollock created fractals. He introduced chaos through two radical differences in the way he applied paint to canvas. First, Pollock did not limit his movement to his hand and arms but included his body, providing an entire range of different lengths in which paint appeared on the canvas. Second, he painted by allowing paint to drip from the brush. In conjunction with varying trajectories due to his body movement, he generated an unpredictable, chaotic motion. Over the years, Pollock perfected this dripping technique as seen by increasingly larger fractional dimensional values in his work. 

Below is his most fractal-heavy work, Blue Poles. With such a high fractal dimension (1.72), Pollock challenges the limits of what human eye can determine something as beautiful.

Pollock's painting, 'Blue Poles' (1952)"

Jackson Pollock