Action and affect: Ritual dynamics in Jackson Pollock's creative process

Abstract

This article proposes to use ritual anthropology to model the creative process in modern Western art, illustrated by the longitudinal case study of North American artist Jackson Pollock. First, the article applies Alfred Gell's model, where artists are either “passive” spectators or “active” creators, and signals the need for a more detailed description of the transition between these states. Drawing from the dynamics of affects as drivers for action in Jeanne Favret-Saada's ethnography of rural sorcery, the article proposes a resolution for this shift. This new model emphasizes that, for Pollock, artworks are used to experience a specific affect, the pursuit of which guides his creative process, both for individual artworks and the development of his entire body of work. The conclusion briefly explores how the model applies to another visual art practice and alternative models from psychology to further emphasize the centrality of affects in the creative process.