This painting is a reinterpretation of one of Jackson Pollock‘s later works “portrait and a dream”. Over the years Pollock’s painting has been the subject of widespread interpretation, not being a scholar I will leave that debate to the critic‘s and tell you what it meant to me. In 2006 I began the daily annihilation series, which were re-interpretations of Jackson Pollock paintings seen through the lens of the style I was developing at the time that was eventually coined" “post modern mashup”… which combined elements from various periods throughout the history of contemporary art. The title of the series “daily annihilation” was drawn from a phrase in art critic Harold Rosenberg’s 1952 essay “The American Action Painters” where he compared the painters of the time such as Willem de Kooning, Franz Klein and Jackson Pollock to heroic existentialist, working without regard for conventional standards of beauty, dismissing everything that came before them in the effort to create what became abstract expressionism. He called this day to day battle in the studio their daily annihilation… to me that just felt like a very apt description of what it was to be an artist searching for an original voice, maybe sans the existential heroics. Fast forward to 2018 a decade past this body of work, I returned to it once again inspired by Jackson Pollock‘s later work. In 1953 Jackson was battling personal issues while searching for a new way to express himself with the drip, feeling he had said everything he had to say with his current technique, this was one of the pieces where he seem to bring more of himself into the work, seeing it as both a self portrait and a map of his inner thoughts. At the time I was going through a lot of change and personal upheaval in my own life, and connected with his painting as a symbol or a gateway through those times, channeling that connection and inspiration into not just this painting, but into inspiration and direction in my future work and life. I made two paintings in this period, the other being “passing through eternity’s gate” where i drew similar parallels and inspiration from van Gogh’s later work, in particular “Wheatfield with Crows” which I’m pleased to say was acquired by a collector the day it was completed (scroll down to see an image of that painting and a couple of the dh paintings from 2006). Daily Annihilation #6 is currently on display at ONE Modern Art and is available for acquisition. Contact me for details and to set up an appointment for a private viewing.
peace,
j
Jackson Pollock’s “A Portrait and a Dream” 1953
John Bell in the studio working on “daily annihilation #6”
Bell in the studio with “daily annihilation #1 in 2006
“"daily annihilation #3” at the POP SHOP show SIZE MATTERS in 2009
Bell in the studio with “passing through eternity’s gate”, acrylic and oils on canvas 120” x 72”
Detail of “passing through eternity’s gate”