When Jackson Pollock started splatter painting in Long Island, New York in 1945, nobody knows whether is was out of pure genius, or out of mockery towards the traditional idea of art. Whatever it was, it worked and has captivated, motivated, and inspired millions of people all over the world. Art critiques and enthusiasts all over the world have studied Pollock’s work immensely, and through analysis and research have confirmed that Pollock’s work do in fact contain fractals. One layer of a fractal is color. Colors in fractals have a pattern that repeats in smaller and smaller increments forever. Another component of fractals is shape. The shapes, for example, in Pollock’s splatter paintings are part of revolving patterns that keep getting smaller and smaller.
A study showed that as Pollock’s painting career went on, his paintings kept rising in Dimension level:
As his career went on, Pollock started to include more dimension in his paintings
Fractals clearly have an esthetic appeal. If they didn’t, Pollock’s paintings wouldn’t be selling for millions of US dollars. To test exactly how appealing fractals are, in 1994 the Pollockiser was made, a mechanical arm that simulated Jackson Pollock’s brush whips on a canvas. In a study done of those paintings made by the Pollockiser, over 90% of people preferred paintings with fractals over images without fractals, proving just how beautiful and natural they are.
The Pollockiser (left), The Pollockiser’s creations (right)
Although the use of scientific experiments to define how beautiful a piece of art is can be unconventional and almost ridiculous, the results aren’t meaningless either. The findings that fractal images are more pleasing than non fractal images can be apparent not only in conventional art, but also in architecture, archaeology, and most importantly, the environment, which is where fractals originated. Many fractal images have been found throughout history, including the Nazca lines in Peru, early Chinese paintings, Leonardo da Vinci’s Deluge, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Jackson Pollock may not have invented the fractal, but he sure left his impact and impression on what a fractal is, and what it means to society, whether we are aware of that or not. I truly admire his work, because splatter painting is awesome!
Two Questions I have for Dr. Richard Taylor:
- Could you tell the difference between a painting that was painted by Jackson Pollock and a painting that was painted by the Pollockiser? Can you tell right away, or does it take a while?
- What is your preferred D-value in a Jackson Pollock painting? Why?