For those of you tired of visiting museums or craving an interactive art history experience with your children, visit the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center this summer and observe art history in its place of origin.
While the estate and former studio of abstract expressionist pioneer Jackson Pollock and his wife and fellow artist Lee Krasner is open year-round to the public, it also offers a special workshop for children during the summer where they get to paint like Pollock in the very spot that he did more than half a century ago.
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“I call it a little bit of art history mixed with a lot of fun,” says Karyn Mannix, a local artist who has led workshop for five years.
Guests and children are welcomed to a tour of the modest home where Pollock and Krasner worked, played and lived; peering into the bedroom they shared, glancing at the black-and-white photos of the couple that line the crisp white walls. The tour offers a glimpse into the life of the artist, as opposed to the paintings, which Pollock said have a life of their own.
The tour also offers a rare film of Pollock in action in the backyard of the house, dripping paint on a glass canvas as he explains his careful and calculated painting method; a method that is often mistaken for chaos. Shot by Hans Namuth, a Hamptons photographer who documented the painter in action in the late 40s, the film lends an exciting new dimension to the appreciation of Pollock’s work—even for kids.
The highlight of the tour comes with entering the unassuming wooden shack tucked away on the left side of the property—Pollock’s preserved studio, where the artist’s trademark paint drips and spatters have seeped into the floorboards, becoming part of the building’s DNA, like initials etched into the side of a tree. Dribbles and splashes collected over time look like one of Pollock’s paintings, transforming the studio floor into a work of art in itself.
After the tour and video, children and guests are brought out to the house’s sprawling backyard, where they create their own Pollock-style drip paintings on the quiet property overlooking Accabonac Creek.
Be sure to wear old clothes, as turkey basters become loaded cannons when filled with paint in the hands of children–no one is safe from the errant glob of color. The splat of bubbling paint onto the canvas can be heard as tiny paint-soaked hands reach for turkey basters and tongue depressors and plot their next move to form the personal work of art. When the fun is over, Mannix glances at one of her new young artists, covered in paint. “You look like a Jackson Pollock painting!” she says.
Tours are offered throughout the summer on Thursday and Friday from 10 – 11:30 a.m. 830 Springs-Fireplace Rd., East Hampton. 631-329-2811.
Tags: abstract painting, Hans Namuth, Jack Poloock Springs, Jackson Pollock, Jackson Pollock East Hampton, Jackson Pollock Studio, Jasckson pollock lee krasner, Lee Krasner, long island painting workshop, painting worksops, Pollock Krasner, Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center
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If one were a realist, Jackson was the first, like Monet and Mattiste, to do what they did, like Picasso. But these men knew what they did was extremely pedestrian and literaly cringed at the fame it brought. So, to that end, as I feel, any pollack is a sham, a fraud that is sought by weak people that dont direct themselves correctly, meaning they are eskewed on what art is, they”re venue being silly and inane, as their own existence is. But Monet could paint, dont get me wrong. but a Pollack is actually nothing in the world of the greats, like the Flemish painters. Just like Maya Anjelou really stinks as a poetis, cause poetry is dead and so is good art.Thanks, sorry to opine so loudly, must be the holidays. To prove my point, go to hoktooey and read his modern poetry, thus it is this writer who sent u this message, oh the lament….
Abstract art classes, aren’t true artists supposed to be well rounded before they start turning out this crap?
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