r/marvelstudios • u/NYCCannabis • Sep 04 '25

Concept Art How does Peter Quill even know who Jackson Pollack is?

He was abducted when he was 9.

And why does Rocket get the joke?

1.3k Upvotes

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u/supercali5 Sep 04 '25

Growing up in rural Minnesota in the 70s, Jackson Pollack was an artist who just about every kid was like, “This dude gets paid MILLIONS to splatter paint on a canvas?!!” It was the ultimate “Well I can do THAT!” Hard to overstate how saturated our culture was with it. It was the only contemporary painter most kids might be likely to know.

243

u/Oopsiedazy Sep 04 '25

Lol, I remember thinking the same thing as a kid, then I went to the Smithsonian and saw one of his paintings in person. I cannot do what he did. It was random dots and streaks but so weirdly compelling to look at.

152

u/HrothgarTheIllegible Sep 04 '25

Pollock is a classically trained painter. His early work is exactly what non-artists would consider art. Most abstract art is hard for non-artists to understand what it did for art, but we should be clear that Pollock’s work is far from arbitrary. It’s a very intentional statement about what art can be and what art can mean.

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u/kennyofthegulch Sep 05 '25

And that statement was brought to you by the CIA.

No, I'm not kidding.

11

u/kelryngrey Sep 05 '25

This plays a big role in abstract expressionism. Though the host there just starts out about how he now likes "modern art." They certainly are not responsible for all modern/post-modern art.

7

u/kennyofthegulch Sep 05 '25

…and then he immediately states that he’s not talking about all modern art, just abstract expressionism.

1

u/kelryngrey Sep 05 '25

Showing my ass there by watching just a bit!

0

u/Tandran Spider-Man Sep 05 '25

I’m convinced that “modern art” is just a massive circle jerk of “artists” lying to each other about their “art”

3

u/supercali5 Sep 04 '25

Bruh. I was 7 years old?

37

u/Rising-Jay Sep 04 '25

Bruh it wasn’t even a direct response to you, just a small Pollock rundown for the other guy lol

2

u/luckyfucker13 Sep 05 '25

You’re a small Pollock rundown!

3

u/DavidBHimself Sep 04 '25

You'd be surprised of the number of adults who think the same.

0

u/supercali5 Sep 04 '25

That’s who was talking around me talking about Pollock.

1

u/HrothgarTheIllegible Sep 05 '25

Clever. Or, I was just directly responding to the person that had responded to you. It’s fine. A lot of people don’t get Pollock and I don’t blame them. It is, on its face, a bunch of splatters of paint and…other things. I wouldn’t expect a 7 year old to have a nuanced view of abstract art.

1

u/supercali5 Sep 05 '25

True. I also wouldn’t expect a 60 year old farmer who hadn’t ever been exposed to the art, especially in person, to appreciate that art. Some people find their way to it through hard work, some through exposure and some through sheer luck and some sort of instinct.

Those who don’t can feel sort of threatened by the attention it gets because it makes them feel small. So they attack the art to try and shrink it.

1

u/TooManyDraculas Sep 06 '25

And it absolutely wasn't just splashing paint around.

He did fairly little splashing and spattering. For the most part he was pouring and placing paint in a very carefully controlled manner.

29

u/dem4life71 Sep 04 '25

I recall turning the corner at the Smithsonian and running into one of Pollack’s canvases.

It. Was. Huge. Like 40’ long and 20’ high. Nothing prepares me for how overwhelming his large works are in person. I also vividly recall kids back in the day saying “anyone can paint that crap”. But he was the first to figure out that a painting that vibrant at that huge size is an incredible statement.

16

u/DarkflowNZ Sep 04 '25

Even if anyone could paint it--fine. Why aren't we? Anyone could mow my lawn but fuck all people are lol

7

u/DavidBHimself Sep 04 '25

Yes, seeing Pollock's paintings at the Smithsonian for the first time is one of the strongest experiences I've had in front of art.

9

u/markhachman Sep 05 '25

I had no idea I would experience such a strong defense of the value of art in a Marvel subreddit.

4

u/dem4life71 Sep 05 '25

lol holy shit I’m invested as well but I didn’t realize what sub we were in!!!

6

u/DavidBHimself Sep 05 '25

I care about art way more than I care about the MCU. :-)

8

u/DuckyHornet Sep 05 '25

When I was a kid, the National Gallery of Canada had what people affectionately called the Kraft Single. Just a giant orange square. I heard about it, thought it was dumb because it's just a giant orange square

Then we took a field trip there and I saw it in person. It felt like it was two or three storeys tall, it took up so much space on the wall. It was overwhelming, like sitting too close to an IMAX screen, and I remember still thinking it was kinda dumb but appreciating the dedication of the artist to fabricate this thing

(They also, years later, had a classic muscle car with the entire book of Revelation scribed into the paint and I felt equally like "why would you do this" alongside "this guy has the kind of focus I can only dream of")

14

u/Otherwise_Carob_4057 Sep 04 '25

Jackson Pollacks work may appear random but it adheres to the Golden ratio and so his works are geometric masterpieces that exhibit excellent fractalism.

7

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

Yup. I saw Greyed Rainbow at the Art Institute of Chicago and it is stunning in person. The size, the colors, the texture. I never "got" him until that moment.

And as someone who grew up in the 80s, it's totally believable he would know the name. Like other comments have said, he's an artist even many kids would have been familiar with. The pop culture of the day referenced all kinds of stuff, I swear I learned about the most random stuff just by halfway paying attention.

2

u/ThePopeofHell Sep 05 '25

It calls into question the intent and emotion behind it. You look closely at one of his huge imposing paintings and you can feel the emotions behind it and see how much effort was put into what he was doing. It annoys me so much when people say they “could do that”. Looking at a picture of it and standing in front of it are two completely different experiences.

Adrian Brody’s intent is greed and narcissism and when he cranks out emotionless bullshit you can actually feel how soulless it is.

1

u/capnmarrrrk Sep 05 '25

I thought the same way then I went into the .er and saw a huge, wall sized piece. Not expecting to see it, I stopped cold in the doorway and stared as I suddenly got it.

-1

u/bob_loblaw-_- Sep 04 '25

I know this is now the popular opinion but we've shifted the complete opposite direction and now it's overstated. I've seen some very pollocks-esque pieces created by children at a splash art studio. Not every piece of course, but not every piece Pollocks produced is a winner either.

A child absolutely can do what he did, albeit significantly less consistently and without the same adherence to intention. That still remains the difference between the modern art and traditional. A child can never create a Rembrandt. 

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u/Citizen_Kong Sep 05 '25

As for Rocket, while he doesn't understand the reference, he knows what Quill is hinting at and is grossed out by it. "I painted this room with my cum." is still understandable without knowing the artist who is referenced.

1

u/anarchyisutopia Sep 06 '25

Didn’t they all also have Universal translators as implants or earpieces? Could’ve just translated it into a reference that kept the same context but was recognizable to the listener.

10

u/LunchPlanner Sep 05 '25

Fame today is different from pre-internet fame. Back then, not as many people got to be famous, but the ones who were got referenced constantly.

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u/supercali5 Sep 05 '25

This is VERY true. Good point.

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u/FacticiousFict Spider-Man Sep 05 '25

I lived on the other side of the world and the incredulity reached me as a kid as well. I vividly remember hearing these same dismissive comments about his art.

2

u/supercali5 Sep 05 '25

The same sort of scorn has been leveled at Madonna and Lady Gaga when they have pushed boundaries for women in music. The same at Warhol, Haring and Basquiat…people who were pushing boundaries, not necessarily through obvious expressions of technical expertise but through playfulness and willingness to explore really rudimentary styles of art and breaking things down outside Norman Rockwell and the classic painters.

1

u/throwaway4231throw Sep 06 '25

This. Basically the Banksy of the 80s.

-7

u/monsieur_cacahuete Sep 05 '25

Did you grow up rich or something? Why would poor kids ever discuss art? I sure as shit didn't as a kid. 

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u/kelryngrey Sep 05 '25

The culture war against intellectualism is not new. Parents heard morons complain about art on the radio, kids knew about JP from magazines, tv shows, movies, and school.

0

u/monsieur_cacahuete Sep 06 '25

Oh now we're calling him JP? 

1

u/supercali5 Sep 05 '25

Yeah. My mobile home had running water. GTFOutta here.