“In the footsteps of Jackson Pollock (… and Brad & Angie): A day at the MET”

The current exhibition of Abstract Expressionism at the MET museum is a feast for the senses. This is, of course, as it should be, given that the artistic genre under examination is itself concerned with feasting and often overwhelming the senses. Powerful and assaulting, these works challenge the viewer the tactile and material reality of life and the human condition. As curator Marci Kwon explained to my gaggle of bright NYU undergraduate scholars, Astract Expressionism addresses fundamentally the conflict of exteriality versus interiality, the conscious versus the unconscious, the revelation of the artist’s self and his/her artist process.

“Tight,” “nuanced,” and “violent” is how critic Clement Greenberg described this movement – the same could said a few of its practionners, most notably and obviously Jackson Pollock. And indeed, it is Pollock’s work – the piece de la resistance of this current exhibition – which drew me and my students to the MET on this sunny afternoon, but is the work of the lesser-known, lesser-iconic Abstract Expressionists that made the most profound impression, and in fact, took my breath away.

That this group of revolutionary artists were nutured and inspired in and around Washington Square is no surprise. The diners and coffee shops that they frequented still remain, and one hopes their spirit of determined defiance does also. It does make me wonder, how, in years to come, generations of scholars and students will regard, rever or reject the art of our time.

This has been a formidable start to our investigation, our cultural history of Washington Square.

As an artist/thinker living in Washington Square, I am humbled by the achivement of the artistic giants who have come before, while at the same time I am encouraged by the legacy they have left behind. As an artist, I am inspired to occupy the same space as Pollock, de Kooning, etc.

(Note: Ref to ‘Brad & Angie’ – Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were the most celebrated visitors to this exhibtion at the MET, which sadly closes this weekend.)