Customer Reviews

Jackson Pollock - Love and Death on Long Island [VHS]

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WOW! Though this is not actually the movie Pollock, and actually a 40 minute biography/precursor to the movie, it was wonderful! It had several interviews with freinds, fellow artists and other misc. aquaintences of Jackson's in it from Ruth Klingman to Kirk Varnedoe. They were short to the point and all very interesting, especially the Cedar Bar bar tender stories! In addition it had footage from the famous Hans Namuth movies of him at work and when he painted on glass while the camera was underneath(very hard to find footage!) This is a must to any Pollock freak. Caution there is some language unsuitable for classroom usage. Well worth the money if you like JP.

'The dot of birth!'
I used this quote in reference to Gorky as a starting point because they were contemporaries and were both on the verge of creating & contributing to something original; ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM. I enjoyed this short docu on this most important artist esp for us American painters. Painting up to then was dominated by the Europeans and we needed a new paradigm in order to respond to. Pollack took that 'dot' of reference and exploded it like atomic energy, like Jazz, like the horizontalness of the southwest...like the Navaho sand painters! A white shaman of virtuosity! An American original! Which exemplifies and satisfies the American 'individual' spirit! The old man in this piece is right; energy is the key to get up and do it again! Energy* pure and unequivocal energy!! AE is painting the inner world, the unconscious as Pollack would refer to again and again. (he was a Jungian) Paint what you fEEl, not what you sEE! Jackson tap into the collective unconscious of the American dreamer. Keep in mind the times; American interest in space flight, atomic energy, the vastness of the west of which he was from. American capitalism! Improvisational Jazz. A key component on his methodology! Now we've had 70 years more or less of this type of creating and the problem with painting from the unconscious or automatic imagery is it tends to repeat itself which I believed troubled Pollack. (I've given them all they want, what else do they want! - Pollack) One has to consider and incorporate change as Miles Davis ingeniously does and Wynton Marsalis does not!

'Light is action at a distant!' -Merleau-Ponty

As an artist myself - I wish there was more emphasis on Jacksons actual creative process and the paintings themselves...instead of the drama of his personal life. However, I'm glad I own it and enjoy watching it.

Since documentaries are featured as extras on many DVDs, there's a growing appetite for this cinematic art form. Criterion is feeding that craving with a series of fascinating glimpses into extraordinary real lives.

The artistically apposite worlds of Jackson Pollock, and Robert Crumb are revealed in "JACKSON POLLOCK: LOVE AND DEATH ON LONG ISLAND" and "THE CONFESSIONS OF ROBERT CRUMB". Striking views of Pollock's work are commented on by artists including his wife, painter Lee Krasner. Ed Harris, the star and director of the Academy Award© winning film "Pollock" discusses Pollock's blazing rise to fame and his difficulties coping with it.

A sad look at the destructive, hyper life of a madman. Is being an artist, by definition, a kind of insanity?