1. Hans Hofmann (b. Germany 1880, arr. 1932 NY)
   1. Not interested in Surrealism
   2. Self-fashioned himself as a bridge to European modernism (Cubism + Expressionism)
   3. Important teacher, especially in the years 1938-45 when he influenced Pollock and the critic Clement Greenberg
2. Jackson Pollock (b. Cody, WY 1912, died a probable suicide 1956)
   1. Avowed influences (Mexicans, Benton, Native American sand painters)
   2. Formal achievements, process
      1. 1930s: Primitivism
      2. 1943 synthesis of Cubist grid and Expressionist gesture
      3. 1947 "breakthrough" drip style
3. Codification of the Pollock Myth: Hans Namuth's Pollock Painting, 1951 (film)
4. Lenore ("Lee") Krasner (b. NY 1908, d. 1984)
   1. Krasner's challenge
      1. The gender politics of Abstract Expressionism: man as nature
      2. The gender politics of postwar society: the little woman
      3. The gender politics of art: the oxymoron of a "female master"
   2. The influence of Pollock, the influence of Krasner

Slide List

Hofmann Apples 1932
Hofmann Still Life, 1939
Hofmann Idolatress 1944
Hofmann Spring 1940
Hofmann Cathedral 1959
Pollock Bird 1938-41
Pollock Birth 1938
Pollock Moon Woman 1942
Pollock Guardians of the Secret 1943
Pollock Mural 1943
Pollock Alchemy 1947
Pollock No. 1 1948, also No. 1 1949
Gottlieb Alchemist 1945
Krasner Composition 1939
Krasner Composition 1949
Krasner Three in Two 1956

Hofmann abhorred Surrealism and sought to teach the underlying rules of form-expression.  Believing that the inspiration for art lay outside the artist, in "nature." (Hans Hofmann, Still Life, 1939)

Hofmann's experiments remained merely exercises in abstracting form from motif (Hans Hofmann, Spring, 1940), always subscript to a system he called "push & pull" (Hans Hofmann, Push and Pull, 1950), his "signature style." (Hans Hofmann, Cathedral, 1959 )

Haida Mask, 19th c.
Jackson Pollock, Birth, 1938
Gottlieb, Alchemist, 1945
Kwakiutl Mask, early 20th c.

Certainly the forms of Native American art and visual cutlure were brought into New York school paintings-the nested symbols, zoomorphic (animal-inspired) forms-within-forms, the bold earth colors....

Tlingit Shaman's Mask
Kwakiutl Dancers
Pollock painting

But possibly even more important to these painters seeking an authentic American art was the position of the shaman himself (sic) - a healer in society.

Jackson Pollock, movie stills.
Jackson Pollock, No.1, 1948
Jackson Pollock, No.1, detail, 1948

What do you think--Did the extraordinary documentation of Pollock's painting technique do more harm than good?

Jackson Pollock, Going West, 1934
Jackson Pollock, Bird, 1941

What, if anything, might these early works suggest about the direction of Pollock's mature painting?

Jackson Pollock, Mural

Note the rhythmic pattern and all-over approach to Mural -- even before the drip technique.

Jackson Pollock, Phosphorescence, 1947
Lee Krasner, White Squares, 1948

Both paintings deal with the tension between the structure and control on the one hand, and random "accident" on the other.