Pollock's Paintings

I have to say that I am a fan of Jackson Pollock's paintings. While I'm not quite sure I would ever spend money to buy one, I would much rather look at paintings like these then try to decipher paintings like Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase (pg 13 in our books). The most common complaint is that of "oh, well even I could 'paint' that." The question is, why haven't you. And, is the reason people don't actually like him because of the fact that they are jealous that he made so much money by just splattering paint? In my opinion, that makes him a genius. You can't fault the man for finding and maybe exploiting a way to make money doing the thing he loved. I think by not using a brush to place a line of color exactly where he thought it should be, but instead just flinging it and letting the paint land wherever, Pollock created a whole other style of art. Just how Picasso changed art by allowing a person to be painted from different view points, Pollock allowed art to not always be something in which you have to search to discover a meaning. When I think of the word "art", the broadest definition is: something pretty or interesting to look at. That is exactly what Pollock's art is for me, pretty and interesting to look at. The colors in his paintings with all their different shades blend together so well, yet you can see so many distinctions. I personally love how his paintings give off the feeling of having so much depth.
The thing that impresses me the most, is that Pollock created a style that everyone COULD do, if they wanted to. While somebody won't get paid as much as Pollock did, if they wanted to be an artist, they could be. I don't see this as lowering the standard of art, but instead, making art accessible to everyone. For this, Jackson Pollock has earned my respect as an artist.

No. 5, 1948

This painting became the most expensive painting in the world in 2006, when it was sold privately for $140 million dollars. (The world’s most famous painting are generally owned by museums, which very rarely sell them, which makes them quite literally priceless) Way to go Pollock.

Harlem by Hughes

"Harlem" by Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And the run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

This is one of my favorite poems of all time. The first time I was introduced to it was when reading the play "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry. This poem appears at the front of the book and is very fitting with the plot of the play. The play is about an African-American family living in Chicago during the 1950s. The family comes into some money and all the members want to spend it on something different. All the things the members want are part of dreams that they had put of for most of their lives. This poem was perfect to set the tone. Hughes wrote this during the Harlem Renaissance, focusing on the "bloody summer" of 1919. During this time, African-Americans were on the quest for racial equality and in search of self-identity. "Harlem" asks the question: what happens when your dream has been limited, put off, or lost? Asking "what happens to a dream deferred?" the poem sketches a series of images of decay and waste, representing the dream (or the dreamer's) fate. While many of the potential consequences affect only the individual dreamer, the ending of the poem suggests that, when despair is epidemic, it may "explode" and cause broad social and political damage.

Many African-American poets and writers had avoided portraying lower-class black life because they believed such images fed racist stereotypes and attitudes. Langston Hughes believed that people deserved to understand the other side of the color spectrum. With his poems, he found a way to make them African-American with their rhythms, images, diction, and allusions. By doing this, I feel like he was empowering African-Americans instead of just complaining about the hardships they faced as a race. Overall, I really enjoy this poem every time I read it. And every time I read it, it makes me want to accomplish something big with my life because I don't want to find out what happens when a dream is deferred.

Catch-22

When reading through the section of World War II Fiction, Joseph Heller's Catch-22 caught my eye. While it is a hilarious read, I hated this book. No, that's not right. It was just a hard book to read and follow, and I felt like I was going into my own personal war everytime I sat down to read it. Once I finished it, I realized I had thoroughly enjoyed it and it had been worth it to struggle through it.
         This book delves into the mind of Yossarian, a soldier during World War II. While the general opinion of the other characters is that Yossarian is crazy, in a way he is the most sane of them all. Nobody believes him when he continues to claim that millions of people are trying to kill him, but is that not the whole concept of war, one country trying to kill the fighting members of the other country. In this way, he is the only one who understands what is going on around him. He takes the war personally and tries to take any chance he can, mainly by faking illnesses, to stop fighting. So while it sounds like a fabulous plot, it was sooo hard to read. The book is based upon circular reasoning. Part of the description of the book is, "Catch-22 is a law defined in various ways throughout the novel. First, Yossarian discovers that it is possible to be discharged from military service because of insanity. Always looking for a way out, Yossarian claims that he is insane, only to find out that by claiming that he is insane he has proved that he is obviously sane—since any sane person would claim that he or she is insane in order to avoid flying bombing missions." The book is full of these paradoxical statements. The characters themselves are hard to follow, and while entertaining (my favorite character was Major Major Major Major-yes I think his parents had a horrible sense of humour), have all had some mental trauma because of the war. In the end, Yossarian runs away from the army to escape from the dehumanizing macherinery of the military and has to flee to neutral Switzerland in order to try to gain control of his life back.
         The message of this book is very strong. What comes across loud and clear is the destructiveness of war on humanity. We all see pictures of the aftermath of the fighting, the wartorn countryside and the scorched marks on the earth. What we dont see is the traumatizing effects on a person's mental well-being after fighting in a war. The doctors have classified this as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a term which everybody is familiar with, but nobody can imagine the actual behavior behind the label. This book shows exactly why nobody should be expected to come out of a war all fine and dandy. The situations these men are lucky enough to live through are horrifying and unbelievable. While not as descriptive as Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, Heller manages to depict the slow decay of the soliders mental health. I think this book is an incredible portrayal of the tragedies of war. It would be hard to talk about considering, not everyone has read it, but I'm very surprised literature during the wartime was not even brought up in class. While it is a very difficult and confusing read (I had to take notes to keep the characters straight) I would recommend it to anyone up to the challenge.

Le Corbursier

When studing for the midterm, I rediscovered Le Corbusier. Going though the textbook for the first time, I had glossed over him because I was still thinking about Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright is probably my favorite architect, having previously studied his works before and getting to visit the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York this summer. Reading through the textbook this time, I skipped past Wright and landed on Le Corbusier and wow, his simplicity and functionality really caught my eye.

I myself, am a very logical, straightforward person, and his style really appealed to me. He was quoted as saying, "Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep." All of his designs employed these values. While not necessarily pretty to look at, his buildings had a purpose, a function. He made use of every square inch in his design. He was instrumental in the high-rise buildings that create the landscape for every big city. In response to the urban housing crisis, Le Corbusier sought out ways to efficiently house large groups of people at the lowest cost possible. Thus the modern apartment building was created.



 Le Corbusier was not content with housing people, but instead imagined redesigning the large cities themselves. He wanted to created skyscapers that would include everything from housing, to shopping, to businesses, to restaurants. His goal was to improve the quality of life and to make everything more accessible. This idea has definately taken off in a world where everything needed can be gained with the touch of a finger.

 

Villa Savoye
in Poissy, France

 With Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier employed what he called the five points of architecture. First, he lifted the building off of the ground with reinforced concrete pillars, which is commonly used now for houses near oceans. The next things were moving walls and an open floor plan, with which the space could be changed to fit different needs. Windows were also something he stressed in both housing and his skyscrapers. The last was the roof garden that he became known for. Most of these designs are commonly used nowadays, and we have Le Corbusier to thank for that. I am very glad I found him my second time through because in my opinion, Le Corbusier has had a very strong and unique impact on the world of architecture.