Jackson Pollock on the Wing
The three images above show examples of
early avian art which likely influenced
the New York School
of Abstract Expressionism. These action paintings
express fluidity and energy. The artists often worked from high
altitudes, and encouraged chance to play a role in the
painting process - emphasizing spontaneity and raw emotion.
We are not able to identify specific artists and their influences on each other, but the emergence of
a New York style is clear from these examples. This is indicated
by a readiness to embrace the gritty urban concrete as a canvas upon which to receive the
spontaneous utterance of winged freedom. This is particularly true of
the left-most study. In the middle piece, one can clearly see some of the early
influences of Jazz.
Below are examples from later artists who were experimenting with
new surfaces, with implications for alternate psychic dialogs,
highlighting the juxtaposition of human frailty against the
backdrop of harsh, modern society.
The second piece shown is often cited by avian-expressionist
critics as a foreshadowing of Pop Art.
And with some of these works,
a discerning eye
might even detect a hint of postmodernist figuration. There is something
to be seen by all.
As one critic points out with alarming clarity, "...the discursive polemic is
germane to the aesthete, yet while provoking the gaze of the
The Northern Aesthetic
Engaging the historical backdrop of old-brick sidewalks, a new generation
of painters were coming of age to the north. The lower branches of several
fruit trees just outside of small cafes near Beacon Hill in Boston
were frequented by avian poets and painters
primarily concerned with the juxtaposition of stiff
with youth and abandon.
We see a progression in these works: a trend towards disregarding
boundaries, which for the Beacon Hill Group represented
societal and class division, calling out to be violated, fragmented,
deconstructed, just as the early avian-expressionists had made their overt attack on the tyranny of representational literalism.
West Coast Influences
Many of these experimental painters had taken wing to explore a westward
aesthetic. They found themselves in San Francisco's North Beach, unexpectedly enraptured in mind-altering experimentation.
After a late night gallery opening that combined
confrontational interactive sound with drugs, a spontaneous "happening" opened the eyes of many painters at this famed event.
A new colorist influence took hold that had a decisive west coast zeitgeist.
The avian expressionists enjoyed several decades of recognition, praise and wealth.
But many of them lived life on the edge: not only through experimenting with drugs and sex,
but also through experimentation with ways of creating new colors and textures in their work that came from the very bowels of their
In many cases, overblown egos combined with a fast-changing gallery scene and collectors seeking out new
genres, had turned many of the most respected artists into drunken cynics.
No longer capable of flight, many of the avian post-expressionists
began incorporating feathers and claw patterns to add texture and narrative angularity
to their works. These artists had lost their following, and fell
into obscurity. Below we see some of the later works. It is clear that
their youthful vitality has been lost.
Still, we see something deep inside,
glimmering through the grit - a reminder of an era of fresh vision: the splattering Shock of the New.
But it is merely a vestige of that raw abandon we relished from the early New York painters of the
sky. Even today, their influence can still be seen, although most
art buyers in this consumer age are not even aware of this influence.
To them, they are just splatters.
But, to the sensitive culturalist with a discerning eye who takes the time to look down, and maybe even stoop
for a closer view, these are works of art - works that not only reveal the energy and the joy,
but also the tortured existential angst...of the great Avian Expressionists.