All profoundly original art looks ugly at first  

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"All profoundly original art looks ugly at first" is a dictum by Clement Greenberg from The Nation, 7 April 1945.

Jackson Pollock's second one-man show at Art of This Century … establishes him, in my opinion, as the strongest painter of his generation and perhaps the greatest one to appear since Miró. The only optimism in his smoky turbulent painting comes from his own manifest faith in the efficacy for him personally of art. There has been a certain amount of self-deception in School of Paris art since the exit of cubism. In Pollock there is absolutely none, and he is not afraid to look ugly — all profoundly original art looks ugly at first. Those who find his oils overpowering are advised to approach him through his gouaches, which in trying less to wring every possible ounce of intensity from every square inch of surface achieve greater clarity and are less suffocatingly packed than the oils. Among the latter however, are two —both called Totem lessons — for which I cannot find strong enough words of praise.





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