Jackson Pollock

"The idea of an isolated American painting, so popular in this country during the thirties, seems absurd to me, just as the idea of a purely American mathematics or physics would seem absurd.. .And in another sense, the problem doesnt exist at all; or, if it did, would solve itself: An American is an American and his painting would naturally be qualified by the fact, whether he wills or not. But the basic problems of contemporary painting are independent of any one country."

"I have a definite feeling for the West, the vast horizontality of the land, for instance.. .I have always been very impressed with the plastic qualities of American Indian art. The Indians have the true painters approach in their capacity to get hold of appropriate images, and in their understanding of what constitutes painterly subject-matter. Their colour is essentially Western, their vision has the basic universality of all real art. Some people find references to American Indian art and calligraphy in parts of my pictures. That wasnt intentional; probably [it] was the result of early memories and enthusiasm."

"I accept the fact that the important painting of the last hundred years was done in France. American painters have generally missed the point of modern painting from beginning to end.. .Thus the fact that good European moderns [European artists who lived in the U.S. because of the Nazi-regime] are now here is very important, for they bring with them an understanding of the problems of modern painting. I am particularly impressed with their concept of the source of art being the unconscious. These idea interests me more than these specific artists do, for the two artists I admire most, Picasso and Joan Miró, are still abroad."

"The modern artist is living in a mechanical age and we have a mechanical means of representing objects in nature such as the camera and photograph. The modern artist, it seems to me, is working and expressing an inner world – in other words – expressing the energy, the motion and the other inner forces ... the modern artist is working with space and time, and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating."

"It seems to me that the modern painter cannot express his age, the airplane the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of Renaissance or of any past culture. Each age finds its own technique..."

"The important thing is that Clyff Still – you know his work? – and Rothko, and I – weve changed the nature of painting.. .I dont mean there arent any other good painters. Bill [ Willem the Kooning ] is a good painter, but hes a French painter [Pollock meant: a French-abstract style]. I told him so, the last time I saw him after his last show,. ..all those pictures in his last show start with an image. You can see it even though hes covered it up, or tried to.. ..Style – thats the French part of it. He has to cover it up with style.. [answering Seldon Rodmans question]"

"Modern art to me is nothing more than the expression of contemporary aims of the age were living in ... All cultures have had means and techniques of expressing their immediate aims – the Chinese, the Renaissance, all cultures. The thing that interests me is that 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."

"Well, method is, it seems to me, a natural growth out of a need, and from a need the modern artist has found new ways of expressing the world about him. I happen to find ways that are different from the usual techniques, which seems a little strange at the moment, but I dont think theres anything very different about it. I paint on the floor and this isnt unusual – the Orientals did that."

"Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didnt have any beginning or any end. He didnt mean it as a compliment, but it was. It was a fine compliment. Only he didnt know it."

"Most of the paint I use is a liquid, flowing kind of paint. The brushes I use are more a sticks rather than brushes – the brush doesnt touch the surface on the canvas, its just above ... [so] I am able to be more free and to have greater freedom and move about the canvas, with greater ease."

"I think they [the public] should not look for, but look passively — and try to receive what the painting has to offer and not bring a subject matter or preconceived idea of what they are to be looking for ... and I think the unconsciousness drives do mean a lot in looking at paintings ... I think it should enjoyed just as music is enjoyed — after a while you may like it or you may not. But it doesnt seem to be too serious. I like some flowers, and others, other flowers I dont like. I think at least it gives — at least give it a chance."

"I believe easel painting to be a dying form, and the tendency of modern feeling is toward the wall picture or mural.."