Ends and Odds: The Ravings of An Old Man by Dave Jaffe. Chapter One of: How Abstract Painters Help Me Survive Old Age.

How Abstract Painters Help Me Survive Old Age . Chapter One




       There were ten of them, or at least I counted ten of them. They were all white males who flourished in the 1940's to the 1970's. They painted abstract paintings that made them famous, and they were called "Abstract Expressionists. "Jackson broke the ice," Willem de Kooning one of the ten said about the most famous of the group, namely Jackson Pollock.
       Pollock was a charismatic brooding figure who was filmed, photographed, and put on at least one national magazine cover. He was called' Jack the Dripper', 'A drooler' and many other insulting things. Yet anyone who appreciates visual arts and looks at paintings by Pollock like 'Lavender Mist' and many other works Pollock did in the late 1940's and the early 1950's, can see that Pollock was a talented artist.
       Pollock later went wild and nearly drank himself to death. "I am nature," he boasted to another fine painter Hans Hofman who came from Germany. Pollock then died in a car crash in 1956. Before Pollock came along the Armenian-born Arshile Gorky had painted some great abstract works and then beset by problems killed himself. It did look like these artists were cursed. After Pollock the Dutch-born Willem de Kooning leaped to the head of the pack and into the public eye. Like Pollock de Kooning was a a massive drinker who tried to stop gulping down alcohol.  For a while de Kooning abstained from the bottle. He didn't stick to painting abstract paintings. He also painted frightening pictures of demonic grinning women.
       De Kooning and Pollock gained the most publicity. Yet I prefer the paintings of three abstract expressionists namely Franz Kline, Philip Guston and Mark Rothko. Rohtko's massive paintings are often used only two colours in which yellow oblongs of paints are framed by deep red stripes. Or Rothko's works are just long red stretches of paint. Rothko who was born in Russia did not escape the curse that may have hung over these painters. He committed suicide after achieving great fame and  making lots of money.
       In the 1950;'s and later Guston painted abstract works with lush paint or a multi-coloured image in the centre  of his works. Later he reverted to more realistic paintings.. I prefer his earlier work. Then there's Franz Kline who big black sweeping images have always attracted me.