New needs need new techniques. And the modern artists have found new ways and new means of making their statements… the modern painter cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any other past culture.

Meaning of the quote

New ideas and discoveries require new ways of expressing them. Modern artists have found fresh approaches to share their messages. They cannot use the same styles and methods as in the past to capture the modern world, like airplanes, bombs, and radios. Artists need to develop new techniques to reflect the changes happening around them.

About Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He developed a unique “drip technique” of pouring and splashing paint onto a horizontal canvas, which earned him widespread recognition and divided critical opinion. Pollock’s volatile personality and struggles with alcoholism added to his legacy as a complex and influential artist.

More about the author

More quotes from Jackson Pollock

He drove his kind of realism at me so hard I bounced right into nonobjective painting.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

The strangeness will wear off and I think we will discover the deeper meanings in modern art.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

My paintings do not have a center, but depend on the same amount of interest throughout.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

I don’t work from drawings. I don’t make sketches and drawings and color sketches into a final painting.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

Every good painter paints what he is.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

I hardly ever stretch the canvas before painting.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

The modern artist… is working and expressing an inner world – in other words – expressing the energy, the motion, and other inner forces.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

Today painters do not have to go to a subject matter outside of themselves. Most modern painters work from a different source. They work from within.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

It doesn’t make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

My painting does not come from the easel.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

Bums are the well-to-do of this day. They didn’t have as far to fall.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

I’m very representational some of the time, and a little all of the time. But when you’re painting out of your unconscious, figures are bound to emerge.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

The modern artist is working with space and time, and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

When I am in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

New needs need new techniques. And the modern artists have found new ways and new means of making their statements… the modern painter cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any other past culture.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

When I say artist I mean the man who is building things – creating molding the earth – whether it be the plains of the west – or the iron ore of Penn. It’s all a big game of construction – some with a brush – some with a shovel – some choose a pen.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn’t have any beginning or any end. He didn’t mean it as a compliment, but it was.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

When I’m painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing. It’s only after a get acquainted period that I see what I’ve been about. I’ve no fears about making changes for the painting has a life of its own.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)

I continue to get further away from the usual painter’s tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc.

Jackson Pollock

American painter (1912-1956)