The scene where they go to see the Pollock paintings was ridiculous... Only art "elitists" with their heads up their derrieres actually believe that pollock was some groundbreaking artist. And how Julia Roberts' character fawns over them... Hilarious!
Jackson Pollock was one of the biggest trolls of the art world. He would get hammered and start "painting" aka flicking paint onto a canvas repeatedly. How anyone considers him to be a visionary is beyond me.
I laughed reading this and I must agree.
shareL.H.O.O.Q.
shareI don’t think Robert’s character was “fawning” over the piece. She told the class they didn’t have to like it, they just had to consider it. The central question of her course was “what is art?” .. “What does art tell us about a culture?” Then she showed slides of her childhood drawings and ads from the era showing women vacuuming. Were those art?
The fact that Pollack trolled the art world could be considered a form of performance art. His haphazard, paint tosses made all the elitists of the time question how they value art. Is something art if someone pays a million dollars for it? Is something art if the “right people” say it is art? The Pollack painting was a good example for students to ponder and discuss those questions.
Art is self evident and requires extraordinary technique and artistic insight. You only need to put Rembrandt next to Pollock to see who is the real artist. And what is more, any good on the street can see it too.
Betty’s instincts were correct but she was using the wrong arguments.