All posts tagged: Pollock

Watch Iconic Artists at Work: Rare Videos of Picasso, Matisse, Kandinsky, Renoir, Monet, Pollock & More

Watch Iconic Artists at Work: Rare Videos of Picasso, Matisse, Kandinsky, Renoir, Monet, Pollock & More

Published by José

Claude Mon­et, 1915: We’ve all seen their works in fixed form, enshrined in muse­ums and print­ed in books. But there’s some­thing spe­cial about watch­ing a great artist at work. Over the years, we’ve post­ed film clips of some of the great­est artists of the 20th cen­tu­ry caught in the act of cre­ation. Today we’ve gath­ered togeth­er eight of our all-time favorites. Above is the only known film footage of the French Impres­sion­ist Claude Mon­et, made when he was 74 years old, paint­ing along­side a lily pond in his gar­den at Giverny. The footage was shot in the sum­mer of 1915 by the French actor and drama­tist Sacha Gui­t­ry for his patri­ot­ic World War I‑era film, Ceux de Chez Nous, or “Those of Our Land.” For more infor­ma­tion, see our pre­vi­ous post, “Rare Film: Claude Mon­et at Work in His Famous Gar­den at Giverny, 1915.” Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1915: You may nev­er look at a paint­ing by the French Impres­sion­ist Pierre-Auguste Renoir in quite the same way after see­ing the footage above, which is also from Sacha …

Did This Psychoanalytical Cult Kill Jackson Pollock?

Did This Psychoanalytical Cult Kill Jackson Pollock?

Published by skeptic

  In the 1950s, a quasi-psychoanalytical organization called the Sullivan Institute began to gain a following among the intellectuals and creatives of NYC. The Sullivanians argued that nuclear family and emotional attachments were destructive to human nature and encouraged communal living and free love. Among the first big names to fall for the Sullivanian theory was the art critic Clement Greenberg, who introduced to it dozens of artists, including Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner. Pollock died in a car crash less than a year after joining. Some cult experts and historians believe that the cult was at least partially responsible for his death.   The Troubled Life of Jackson Pollock Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock. Source: Arthive   The world-famous Abstract Expressionist artist Jackson Pollock became the embodiment of the myth about the great male artist. A difficult character prone to addictions and violent outbursts who created something intellectually unavailable to the crowd, he turned into an archetypal character similar to Pablo Picasso. Pollock started to drink heavily as a teenager to cope with his …

Antisemitism and Holocaust denial are rife, just look at Stephen Fry’s X trolls | Karen Pollock

Antisemitism and Holocaust denial are rife, just look at Stephen Fry’s X trolls | Karen Pollock

Published by skeptic

Last week it was announced that Stephen Fry would be delivering this year’s alternative Christmas message on Channel 4. What refreshing news. After all, it was only in 2008 that the Holocaust-denying, Jew-hating president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was given the platform. So to hear instead that Fry – a national treasure and a powerful campaigner on issues including gay rights and mental health – will be using this moment to raise awareness of the hatred and racism directed at Jewish people right now, is very welcome. Antisemitism has risen year on year but the events of recent months have shaken many of us to our core. It is unbelievable that today, 90 years after Hitler rose to power and almost 80 years since his antisemitic crimes were exposed to the world, we are seeing antisemitism reach levels that I have never witnessed before in my lifetime. At the same time we have seen a stark rise in Islamophobia, and many people are feeling isolated and frightened. And so much of the vitriol we have …

Of course the Holocaust is relevant to Israel now | Karen Pollock

Published by Sam

“People love dead Jews.” Dara Horn used that title for her 2021 book, noting that while remembering the Holocaust was generally accepted as the right thing to do, acknowledging, let alone confronting, modern-day antisemitism was not considered especially relevant or important. It suited many, and still does, for annihilationist hate to be put in a box marked “the past”. After the brutal slaughter perpetrated by Hamas on 7 October there needs to be a caveat: for some people to love them, the dead Jews need to be perceived as powerless. Grimly, it seems that for some, even murdered babies, toddlers or elderly people – dead Jews all – do not qualify for powerlessness, and therefore love, if they are Israeli. During the Holocaust, Jewish men, women and children were systematically stripped of any vestiges of power, strength, or the opportunity – in nearly all cases – to resist. The world turned its back when Hitler came to power, allowing the Nazis to pursue their murderous goals with little assistance or help from the non-Jewish world. …