Dadaists and Jackson Pollock Essay
Imagine all the pieces of artwork on the wall at your school. Some people
like to just look at art and how good the person thinks it is, but I like to compare
different artwork pieces. People. Always too busy to stop and think about the
nature of the art techniques and how each type came to be! I’m looking at fourth
grade dada art and third grade Jackson Pollock techniques. Dadaists’ and
Jackson’s artwork have similarities and differences too!
Dada art was more of sculptures than paintings, but paintings were Mr.
Pollock’s best interest! For example, one of the Dadaists did a sculpture called
Bicycle Wheel which is a bicycle wheel screwed onto a stool. Another Dadaist did
a sculpture called Fountain. But one of Jackson’s paintings is Lavender Mist.
Another beautiful painting he did is Shimmering Substance. Just simply beautiful
works of art!
People didn’t like Dada art, but people couldn’t get enough of Jackson’s
work! One review of Dada art is: when people saw the work, they were
completely outraged, but the Dadaists found it encouraging! Because of World
War one, some of the future Dadaists (mostly writers, painters, etc.) were in a
completely new level of furious! So the Dadaists needed to find some way to let
their powerful feelings out. Way out. Into the public. They wanted to let the
whole world know that they will not stand for this! The nonsense of letting the
war act right on their lawns! The intention of the Dadaists’ work was to shock the
viewers. But one of the people that reviewed Jackson’s art said that his drip
paintings can be seen in a point of view where it is abstract art. Jackson’s viewers
also said it was his best breakthrough art.
Dadaists’ and Jackson Pollock’s art are both simple. A viewer of Jackson’s
art says his action paintings just seem to flow out of his paintbrush. Jackson’s
painting, number five, is also a famous drip painting. It is so wonderful! So simple,
yet a powerful meaning. Marcel Duchamp (Dadaist) had a sculpture named
‘Fountain’ and it was a boy’s toilet turned on its side and he signed it. EW!
Another piece of Marcel’s work is a copy of the Mona Lisa with a mustache
scribbled onto it (otherwise known as ‘L.H.O.O.Q’)!
As you have seen, Dadaists and Jackson are very different but also have
similarities. Even the two most different techniques or pieces can be compared.
Jackson is a loved artist with artwork that will be bought for millions of dollars!
Dadaists are a bunch of angry artists, striving to get their feelings out about the
war that was going on at that time. I hope you learned a lot about how Dadaists
and Jackson Pollock are alike and different!
Bibliography
For Main Idea #1:
 http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/dada.ht
m
Sculptures in Dadaism:
By Marcel Duchamp

Bicycle Wheel, 1913 (first version)
 Fountain, 1917
 http://www.nga.gov/feature/pollock/painting1.shtm
Paintings by Jackson Pollock
 Lavender Mist, 1950
http://www.kaliweb.com/jacksonpollock/art.htm
 Shimmering Substance, 1946
For Main Idea #2:
 http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/dada.ht
m
 The public, of course, was revulsed - which the Dadaists found wildly
encouraging.
 Dada was intended to provoke an emotional reaction from the viewer
(typically shock or outrage).
 http://www.haberarts.com/pollock.htm
 After half a century of pattern painting and parody, Pollock's drip paintings
can be seen at last as a lot more than drips, but they remain the most
defiantly abstract art ever made.
 Even with his breakthrough work, Mural, he still has to look back. It may be
the largest abstract painting Pollock ever made …..
Main Idea #3:
 http://www.ask.com/wiki/Jackson_Pollock#The_
Springs_period_and_the_unique_technique
 He used hardened brushes, sticks, and even basting syringes as
paint applicators. Pollock's technique of pouring and dripping
paint is thought to be one of the origins of the term action
painting. With this technique, Pollock was able to achieve a
more immediate means of creating art, the paint now literally
flowing from his chosen tool onto the canvas.
 No. 5, 1948
 http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/
a/dada.htm
 Fountain, 1997
L.H.O.O.Q., 1919