PAINT
COMMISSIONED BY KARL KOPP

This figure with paint in her face is a permanent installation at the patio entrance to AZ 88, the modernist bar-restaurant on the Scottsdale Mall, about 100 steps north of SMoCA.

The piece references the work of Jackson Pollock between 1947 and ’50. Called drip or action paintings, Pollock wanted to end the viewers search for representational elements in his work. He abandoned titles and numbered his paintings instead. One of his ab-ex (abstract expressionism) paintings has joined the short list of six artists whose paintings have sold for over $100 million. He challenged the Western tradition of using an easel and brush and rocketed to popular status following an August 8, 1949 four-page spread in Life magazine that asked, “Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?”

Getting her hands to contact the paint can right is tricky. They turned out great but from her waist down had to be down twice.

Unlike Pollock’s house paint, we used a durable oil based, gloss, black enamel. I wanted it to shine distinctly off the flat of the plaster. I say plaster but the mix design we use substitutes resin for water. It is very strong.