Vincent van Gogh and Jackson Pollock may seem like completely unrelated historical figures in art, but they are indeed very similar. Both of these influential painters were a part of artistic movements. They also experienced mental illnesses and addictions. Van Gogh and Pollock were unfortunately not considered valuable artist during their lifetimes; they even could have been considered outcasts in society. Van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter active during the 1800s, while Pollock was an American Abstract Expressionist predominantly active during the 1940-50s, but both of these artists defied the standards of what was considered fine art during their eras and were not appreciated or valued before their premature deaths.
Though…show more content… His works of art fit under the category of Abstract Expressionism which was characterized by non-objective imagery that appeared emotionally charged, frequently subconscious, with personal meaning (Spivey 1). Just like Post-Impressionism, Abstract Expressionism was not a single style or approach so these artistic movements allowed Pollock and Van Gogh to develop their signature styles and express themselves by painting though they may have seemed rebellious at the time for doing so. For Jackson Pollock his signature style became the “drip” method; an example of this could be seen in his painting “Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)” which depicts a variety of monochromatic brown paints splattered onto an extremely large, beige and unstretched canvas (Pollock). He truly embraced his subconscious when creating pieces like Autumn Rhythm which could have been confusing or didn’t fit in with the other works of art being created in his era due to the abstraction, since most artist in that time period were creating paintings of flowers, figures or musicians, but also why people appreciate his work…show more content… Van Gogh often fasted for days on end, drank abundant quantities of alcohol, including the potent liquor absinthe and suffered a host of psychical and mental agonies (Angier 1). It has been affirmed that during the final two years of his life, his major illness was identified as “Temporal Lobe Epilepsy” due to consuming copious amounts of absinthe and being exposed to the toxic chemicals in his paints; which could partly explain why he painted with a swirl-like motion or even worse, what pushed him to commit suicide by gunshot at 37 (Blumer 519). One of Van Gogh’s most memorable paintings, “Starry Night” that depicts the swirl-like movement within the stars, could have been his actual perspective due to having Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. (Van