Gesture or drive? Reconsidering Jackson Pollock

Abstract

The poetics of dripping developed by the American painter Jackson Pollock has been investigated by many authoritative critics and theorists through existentialism, pragmatism, phenomenology and psychoanalysis. Through a rational comparison of these various positions, from that of Francesco Arcangeli to that of Rosalind Krauss via Enrico Crispolti, Italo Tomassoni and Allan Kaprow, the aim is to understand the experience values and those of the unconscious are present the US artist’s research, with reference also to reflections and affirmations of the painter himself.