When I was a freshman in college I took my first art history class. My art education before this had been limited to art projects and I didn't know much about art movements or art styles. Like many people, every time I saw artwork, particularly an abstract piece, I found it ridiculous that it was considered art. Abstract art is a style of modern art known to be formless or representational of something material. Abstract artists move their audience through the use of colors, lines, and application. One of the most famous abstract artists of the 1900s was Jackson Pollock.
Pollock was known for his gigantic, mural-like paintings where he used a technique called "dripping." Typically, Pollock would lay a huge canvas on the ground and used sticks and brushes to drip and splatter paint onto the surface, creating thick textures and multiple layers of color. I hated artists like Pollock, it seemed to me that they were frauds. People who had become famous simply by knowing the right people and not by their talent alone. I know I'm not the only one who has gone to a museum or gallery and thought, "I could have done that." So with all the luck in the world, when it came time to choose an artist at random to present at the end of the semester, I unfolded my piece of paper and read the words, “Jackson Pollock.”
I had to put aside my aversion and bias and learn about the artist and one of the most absurd artistic styles. At the end of my presentation, however, I changed my mind. I didn't learn to love his work or the man behind them but I did learn to appreciate them. And as any art educator would, I repeated the same project years later with my middle school students. There were some of them who chose Pollock over someone like Leonardo Da Vinci because they thought it would be an easy task. But there were students who, like me, felt frustrated by having to accept that a few drops splashed on paper could be considered art. One of my students said to me, “I'm sorry, but I can't understand how something that could have been made by a kindergartner could be called art, let alone sell for millions.” I asked the students who chose Pollock if it was as easy as they had imagined and most responded by saying no. Apparently covering 160 square feet isn't as easy as it sounds, and yet my students were just making their replicas on paper that measured 36 square inches.
I tried to explain to my students that expressive abstract artwork such as those Pollock created are inviting the audience to connect with their own emotions instead of telling them what to feel. Interpretations of the same work may be different from person to person. Let's imagine for a moment that I'm Pollock, and I picked up a bucket of red paint and dropped it from a ladder onto the canvas. The result would be a canvas with a lot of emphasis on the color red and the movement that the spontaneous lines created. Many associate the color red with anger or frustration, but there may be those who feel joy or are reminded of the skirt of a red dress rising to the rhythm of the music.
Ironically, I didn't come to appreciate abstract art or even the artists in that movement until I had no way of expressing what I felt and it was colors and formless application that helped me. For my students, it was easier to criticize something when they didn't understand it yet. Can you appreciate something without liking it? I don't have a solid answer to this question. I’m of the opinion that art is like a mirror before our society. There are many ideologies and beliefs that I don’t share with others, but I practice tolerance, compassion, and appreciation. Within the art world, there have been many who have challenged ancient ideologies of what art is and is not. Of what we should and should not do. Art, during times of war, has served as propaganda against and in favor of different parties, it has served to create empathy, and also to distract and brighten the lives of those affected the most. To the non-artist, you don't have to like something to appreciate it, lend yourself the opportunity to see the world from a different perspective.