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If you visit a museum with a collection
of modern and contemporary art,

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you're likely to see works that sometimes
elicit the response,

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"My cat could make that,
so how is it art?"

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A movement called Abstract Expressionism,
also known as the New York School,

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gets this reaction particularly often.

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Abstract Expressionism started in 1943

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and developed after the end of
World War II.

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It's characterized by large,
primarily abstract paintings,

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all-over compositions 
without clear focal points,

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and sweeping swaths of paint
embodying and eliciting emotions.

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The group of artists who are considered
Abstract Expressionists

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includes Barnett Newman 
with his existential zips,

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Willem de Kooning, famous 
for his travestied women,

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Helen Frankenthaler, 
who created soak-stains,

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and others.

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But perhaps the most famous, influential,
and head-scratching one

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was Jackson Pollock.

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Most of his paintings 
are immediately recognizable.

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They feature tangled messes
of lines of paint

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bouncing around in every direction
on the canvas.

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And sure, these fields of chaos are big
and impressive,

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but what's so great about them?

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Didn't he just drip the paint at random?

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Can't anyone do that?

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Well, the answer to these questions
is both yes and no.

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While Pollock implemented a technique
anyone is technically capable of

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regardless of artistic training,

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only he could have made his paintings.

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This paradox relates to his work's roots

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in the Surrealist automatic drawings
of André Masson and others.

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These Surrealists supposedly drew
directly from the unconscious

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to reveal truths hidden 
within their minds.

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Occasionally, instead of picturing 
something and then drawing it,

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they let their hands move automatically

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and would later tease out familiar figures
that appeared in the scribbles.

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And after Pollock moved away 
from representation,

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he made drip, or action, paintings
following a similar premise,

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though he developed a signature technique

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and never looked for images or messages
hidden in the works.

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First, he took the canvas off of the easel
and laid it on the floor,

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a subversive act in itself.

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Then, in a controlled dance, he stepped
all around the canvas,

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dripping industrial paint onto it
from stirrers and other tools,

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changing speed and direction

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to control how the paint 
made contact with the surface.

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These movements, 
like the Surrealist scribbles,

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were supposedly born 
out of Pollock's subconscious.

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But unlike the Surrealists,

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whose pictures represented 
the mind's hidden contents,

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Pollock's supposedly made physical
manifestations of his psyche.

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His paintings are themselves
signatures of his mind.

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In theory, anyone could make a painting
that is an imprint of their mind.

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So why is Pollock so special?

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Well, it's important to remember that
while anyone could have done what he did,

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he and the rest of the New York School
were the ones who actually did it.

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They destroyed conventions of painting
that had stood for centuries,

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forcing the art world to rethink
them entirely.

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But one last reason why Jackson Pollock's
work has stayed prominent

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stems from the specific objects he made,
which embody fascinating contradictions.

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For instance, while Pollock's process

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resulted in radically flat 
painted surfaces,

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the web of painted lines can create
the illusion of an infinite layered depth

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when examined up close.

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And the chaos of this tangled mess seems
to defy all control,

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but it's actually the product
of a deliberate,

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though not pre-planned, process.

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These characteristics made Pollock
into a celebrity,

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and within art history,

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they also elevated him 
to the mythified status

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of the genius artist as hero.

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So rather than evening the playing field
for all creative minds,

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his work unfortunately reinforced
a long-standing elitist aspect of art.

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Elitist,

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innovative,

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whatever you choose to call it,

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the history embedded 
in Abstract Expressionism

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is one that no cat, however talented,
can claim.