What do you see?

In "The American Action Painters," author Harold Rosenberg writes:

At a certain moment the canvas began to appear to one American painter after another as an arena in which to act—rather than as a space in which to reproduce, re-design, analyze or "express" an object, actual or imagined. What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event. The painter no longer approached his easel with an image in his mind; he went up to it with material in his hand to do something to that other piece of material in front of him. The image would be the result of this encounter.

When an individual encounters a Jackson Pollock painting for the first time, their reaction is typically either love it or hate it. The ones who hate it say, "I don't get it?" "How is this art?" "It's just a bunch of lines and blobs of paint!" The individuals who don't appreciate Pollock are probably looking for "narrative" in the painting. Unfortunately for them, they're not going to find it.

Pollock's art falls into, what is referred to as "gestural abstraction." After World War II artists, disgusted with the world around them, retreated inward--into the subconscious. Pollock's art is meant for you the viewer to come to your own conclusions. Many of his pieces are large. This is purposeful, for Pollock wants you to delve into the painting, allowing your eye to roam freely, following lines if you choose to. In fact, when you view a Jackson Pollock piece, you should stand as close to it as possible. This allows you to delve into your own subconscious, for Pollock paints without forethought. As Rosenberg explains,"A sketch is the preliminary form of an image the mind is trying to grasp. To work from sketches arouses the suspicion that the artist still regards the canvas as a place where the mind records its contents—rather than itself the "mind" through which the painter thinks by changing a surface with paint."

In the end, Pollock does not try to recreate an image, event, or idea. Instead, he paints without thinking ahead. He creates art in which the viewer is responsible for finding their own meanings and connections.