Programme 2: Abstract Art

The Art Works

Title: Cossacks
Artist: Wassily Kandinsky
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1910–11

Although this is apparently an abstract painting, careful examination can reveal some recognisable elements. The cossacks of the title – Russian soldiers – are standing in the right foreground wearing red hats. The two on the right hold long, black lances, while the third rests a bloodstained sword on the ground. Behind them, at the top of a hill, is a castle, with birds flying in the sky. There is a rainbow, and above it there are two more cossacks fighting on horseback with long, pink, curved scimitars.

Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) was one of the first artists to develop abstract painting, although his early works were more representational. He developed his early abstract works, as he has here, by starting with something more realistic. He then gradually stripped away the details to concentrate on the shapes, colours and lines.

Title: Summertime: Number 9A
Artist: Jackson Pollock
Medium: Oil, enamel and house paint on canvas
Date: 1948

Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) is best known for his development of the drip technique. Rather than applying paint to a surface with a paintbrush or palette knife, he would lay his canvas on the ground and drip or pour the paint onto it using brushes, sticks or other implements. This gave him far more freedom to move around the painting, and he could create variety by a different choice of colours, types of paint (here he uses oil, enamel and house paint) and through moving in different ways. In this work the basic structure is laid down with the black and grey paint. The grey lines are thinner than the black, which suggests he was moving faster as he poured the grey paint. They are also underneath the black line, which implies that the grey paint was poured on first. The painting is therefore a record of the artist’s movements, and, as movement is important for the final appearance of the work, Pollock became associated with action painting.