Suburban Landscape with the Artist Jackson Pollock Painting, oil on canvas, 42″ x 26″.
This is a medium-sized painting depicting a night scene, with light spilling out from the houses onto the street. In the distance, an open garage reveals Jackson Pollock creating one of his Action Paintings. This artwork draws inspiration from the Mannerist Inversion paintings of Peter Brueghel, particularly his “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus.” The image of Jackson Pollock is derived from a famous photograph of the artist at work. By depicting him as small in comparison to the other elements, the painting makes an ironic comment on Art History’s perspective on the world.
The painting is dominated by shades of blue-green and blue-violet, which evoke the atmosphere of night. The warm light from the houses is expressed in yellows, oranges, and reds, conveying a sense of warmth and safety that contrasts with the cool darkness surrounding it. This is a surrealist piece in which the spatial perspective is curved; we gaze down at the foreground while also looking straight out toward the distant hills. The simple suburban homes and church are idealized and more symbolic than realistic.