Jackson Pollock on the Tragedy of WWII/Holocaust

May 8th is a very significant day for me, the country and the world. It is known as V-E Day or as the day that WWII ended. May 8th, 2009 signifies 64 years after the end of the war.

64 years that's it! It feels like it was a long time ago but it really hasn't been to long since then.

The day before, Thursday in class we spoke about Abstract Expressionism and more specifically Jackson Pollock, whose work I love. His work inspires me to challenge the boundaries of art and myself.

In class on Thursday speaking about Pollock, Betsy asked students, "what does this painting remind you of?"


I have always had trouble interpreting Pollock's work. It for me is very hard to get one's head around the entire piece so that one can understand it. His work leaves the audience with an unknown which allows the audience for self interpretation. Every single person can have a completely different feeling or reaction when they see his work.

Back to the question from earlier. Betsy asked, "what does this painting remind you of?"

Some one said it reminded them of the barb wire from the Nazi Concentration Camps and the smoke that came from the chimneys.

That struck me because I had never even considered that. Not even considered really, it had never entered my consciousness.

Once that was said that really made me think in a new way about this piece that i had not thought about before hand. I think its a very interesting interpretation.