docents to intelligently respond

Many people might assume that art needs to be beautiful and organized with clear indications that much thought and effort went into its creation . Thus , Jackson Pollock ‘s and Willem DeKooning ‘s paintings have been the subject of much contention and controversy due to their very abstract and (to many people ) unartistic appearance

Pollock ‘s Number 1 ‘ and DeKooning ‘s Excavation ‘ belong to the body of art that is known as abstract expressionism ‘ This label already says a lot about these two paintings . They are abstract , which means that they do not [banner_entry_middle]

attempt to realistically represent things in the real world , and they are expressionist because they are expressions of the artist ‘s feelings . Taken together , this means that the paintings are , in a way , a form of pure expression , unencumbered by the need for realism

The value of Pollock ‘s Number 1 ‘ and DeKooning ‘s Excavation ‘ lie not in their superficial appearances , by which they can only be seen as meaningless and even ugly splatters and scribbles . One reason that these paintings are valuable as art is that they have evoked (and continue to evoke ) such strong and mixed reactions in the art world . The paintings challenge conventional thought and force people to reconsider the question What exactly is art ‘ For this intellectual reason alone they deserve their place in the realm of fine art

Additionally , and perhaps more importantly , one goal of art is the expression of the “innermost self ” of the artist . Abstract visual imagery has the power to evoke emotions (even colors by themselves are linked to emotions – for instance , red is linked to anger , and blue to calmness . Therefore , the two paintings can be thought of as (almost pure thought and emotion , as opposed to the more conventional and representational forms of art . The lack of recognizable real-world objects in these paintings means that there are hardly any distractions from the expression of emotion that the paintings contain . There are no recognizable shapes that the viewer needs to understand ‘ hence the feeling ‘ of the painting comes through unadulterated… [banner_entry_footer]