The Beauty of Paint Splotches

In class we discussed beauty in terms of culture. I think most of us agreed that many people are conditioned by either education or popular culture to view certain things as beautiful. As a result, some art (Cy Twombly and Rothko are two examples from class) may only be regarded as beautiful because some people like to be pretentious, and they think that claiming to like this kind of art makes them seem superior. And that is a very valid point. But I think those who disregard these artists' works just for the sake of not being pretentious are missing something very important, and that is experience. Take Jackson Pollock for example. You can relate to his work in an exclusively visual way, but that would detract from its beauty. After all, they are just paint drips and splotches with no traditional consideration of things like composition or imagery. But once you consider the experience that went into the piece, once you can visualize the artist's body lurching over the canvas spread on the ground and once you know about the Native American traditions that Pollock was inspired by while painting it, it is really difficult to not see the beauty in it. However, many people do not see the artist's body in his paintings, and many don't know about his background, and many only think his paintings are beautiful because pretentious people told them that his paintings are beautiful. And I think many of us are turned off by the fact that a person who knows nothing about art will throw down Jackson Pollock's name for the sake of seeming cultured. But I would urge you all to look past that. I urge you all to look more deeply into the artists that you find hard to relate to or think are just too cliche, because they often offer more than just a canvas. They offer an experience, and that is what makes them beautiful.