Research/Reading the Masters/Ⅵ Those Who Saw Visions
Ⅵ — Those Who Saw Visions · No. 36 / 50
Jackson Pollock — Number 1A, 1948
폴록 — 〈넘버 1A, 1948〉
1948. Oil and enamel paint on canvas, 172.7 × 264.2 cm. The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Lines tangle across the entire surface. There is no stable center and no passive edge. Paint follows the movement of the body more than the tip of a brush.
Pollock placed the canvas on the floor and walked around it. Instead of applying paint conventionally, he poured, dripped, and flung it. The painting became not the likeness of an object but the trace of time and action occurring during its making.
It appears chaotic, yet it is not pure accident. The speed and height of the hand, the viscosity of paint, and the rhythm of the body combine into a field. The image is both a result and a record of action.
Byun Shi-Ji also drew through the body. Yet where Pollock’s body travels broadly across and around the canvas, Byun’s body sits for long periods and compresses the direction of wind into a single stroke. Pollock’s line explodes; Byun’s line condenses.
One reveals existence by maximizing movement. The other preserves it by reducing movement.
The paint has dried, but the body has not stopped moving.
The interpretation is the author’s. No unverified statement has been presented as the artist’s own words.