Jackson Pollock

by Steven Naifeh

  Sparse correspondence: In the course of researching this book, we have discovered only three unknown letters and eight unknown notes from JP. Several more letters, written by JP to Manuel Tolegian in California, were burned in 1951. Late night phone calls: Benton; Jane Smith; Newman, int. by Peretz. Pollock’s telephone style: Kligman. Lending money: Brach: JP lent him and Miriam Schapiro the deposit for their house in East Hampton. Remodeling houses: Little. JP offered help to still others, including Marca-Relli. Painting bike: Nivola. JP also painted a bike and presented it as a gift to his nephew, Jason McCoy (Del Pilar), probably remembering that his father had done the same as a birthday gift for his brother Frank. Teaching archery: Hubbard. Beguiling smile: Cherry. “Renowned twinkle”: Schueler. Apology: Cherry.

  Painting of Blue Poles: Ohlson; Shepperd; Jane Smith; Stanley P. Friedman, “Last Years.” “For Chrissakes”; “When a painter”; unwrapping linen and searching for paints: Stanley P. Friedman, “Last Years,” p. 48. “I can’t start a painting”: Q. by Smith in Stanley P. Friedman, “Last Years,” p. 48. “I come from Orange”: Q. by Shepperd, recalling Smith. Walking on waxed paper: “Art Buy Sensation,” Sydney Daily Mirror, Oct. 23, 1973. “So that’s the way”: Q. by Smith in Stanley P. Friedman, “Last Years,” p. 50. Pawlike hands: Hopkins. “Forget the hand”: Int. by Shorthall, 1959.

  Distant father: FLP. Granite-faced mother: Tony Smith, q. in DP&G, “Who was JP?” p. 53. “Crybaby”; “mama’s boy”: Mori. Accident-prone: Charles Porter, for childhood accident. For constant needfulness, see ACM; CCP; FLP; Schardt. Drinking at an early age: ACM. Del Pilar: “As long as I can remember, the whole family would spend their time talking about what could be done about Jackson and his problems. There were all these late night phone calls across the country, and it was always about Jackson. He was always the center of attention.” “I’ll show them someday”: Q. by CCP, int by Peretz. “That fucking Picasso”: Q. by LK, int. by B. H. Friedman, in Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, “JP,” n.p.

  Assaulting policemen: Araks Tolegian, recalling her husband Manuel. Driving insanely: Edys Hunter; Liss; Ronald Stein, etc. Destroying property: Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel. Carried home: Kadish; ACM. Turning up phonograph: Sam Hunter. Upending dinner table: Blake; Cole. Flaunting mistress: Kligman.

  “Bilious green”; “it looks like vomit”; “laying it on”: Smith, q. in Stanley P. Friedman, “Last Years,” p. 50. “Splashed and drooled”: Tony Smith, q. in “Expert Defends ‘Blue Poles,’” Sydney Morning Herald, Oct. 25, 1973. Painting and use of syringes: Ohlson; Shepperd; Jane Smith; “Art Buy Sensation,” Sydney Daily Mirror, Oct. 23, 1973; “Expert Defends ‘Blue Poles,’” Sydney Morning Herald, Oct. 25, 1973; Stanley P. Friedman, “Last Years.” Abstract painting”: Q. in [Roueché], “Talk of the Town,” Aug. 5, 1950, p. 16. “Caused a kind of havoc”; “violent arguments”: Loucheim, NYT, Sept. 10, 1950. “Compared to Pollock”: Alfieri, “Piccolo dicorso sui quadri eli JP,” n.p. No early proficiency; competing with brothers: FLP; MJP; Cooter: Charles was always considered the family artist. “Always in transition”: Int. by Shorthall, 1959.

  “We spent a long time”: Smith, q. in Stanley P. Friedman, “Last Years,” p. 50. Scraping off canvas and completing Blue Poles: OC&T II, pp. 193, 196. Sale of Blue Poles: Shenker, “A Pollock Sold for $2-Million.” In America, in Europe, and especially in Australia, there was an outpouring of articles on the sale of the painting. Before Blue Poles, the highest price paid for an American painting had been $250,000, for Steelworkers at Noontime by Thomas Anshutz. Rembrandt, Velázquez, and da Vinci: Twelve years earlier, the Metropolitan Museum of Art had paid $2,300,000 for Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer by Rembrandt; more recently, the Metropolitan had paid $4,100,000 for a portrait, Juan de Pareja, by Velázquez; and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., had paid an unreported price, rumored to be about $5,000,000, for the portrait of Ginevra da Benci by da Vinci. Picasso: The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., had paid $1,000,000 within the previous year for a Cubist painting of a nude by Picasso.

  1. STRONG-MINDED WOMEN

  SOURCES

  Books, articles, manuscripts, brochures, documents, and transcripts

  Crunden, Ministers of Reform; History of Cass and Bates Counties; Honeyman, The Willson Family Tree; Leason, Early History of Ringgold County; Noun, Strong-Minded Women; Sage, A History of Iowa; Solomon, JP; Speck, The Genealogy of the Speck and Benjamin Reed Families; Tingley Centennial History Committee (TCHC), A History of Tingley, Iowa; Wall, Iowa.

  Arts & Architecture, Feb. 1944; Murdock Pemberton, “A Memoir of Three Decades,” Art, Oct. 1955.

  “Died, March 13, 1880—Matt Pollock’s little boy” (newspaper clipping in possession of Clair Heyer); “Obituary—Mrs. Jennie McClure,” Tingley Vindicator, July 1941; “Obituary—J. R. McClure,” Tingley Vindicator, Apr. 1917; “Obituary—J. M. Pollock,” Tingley Vindicator, Dec. 2, 1909; Marriage notice, Tingley Vindicator, Jan. 29, 1903.

  Edna Alcorn Belzer, “Emeline” (unpub. ms.), Alexandria, Va., 1952; Ella Conner Cornwall, “Some Recollections of Ella Conner Cornwall” (unpub. ms.), Ellston, Iowa, n.d.; Herbert F. Cornwall, “Some of the Recollections and History of Herbert F. Cornwall” (unpub. ms.), Ellston, Iowa, n.d.; Clair B. Heyer, “Hometown before Pollution” (unpub. ms.), 1982; Clair B. Heyer, “How Reliable Is Census Data? An Evaluation of Manuscript Census Reports as Source Material for Historical Research in a Study of One Iowa Township” (M.A. thesis), De Kalb: Northern Illinois University, 1966; Stella Lorimor, autograph book, in possession of Dean McClure; FVOC, ”The Genesis of JP: 1912 to 1943” (Ph.D. thesis), Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1965.

  “Home Culture Club,” Tingley, Iowa, 1907–08 (pamphlet in possession of Clair Heyer); Ringgold County Tour Bulletin, 39th Annual Reunion, July 27, 1975.

  Bates County, Mo., marriage certificate, Recorder’s Office, July 22, 1881; Box Butte County, Nebr., marriage license and certificate, Recorder’s Office, Jan. 13, 1903; record book of the justice of peace, Tingley, Iowa, 1899; Ringgold County, Iowa, Agricultural Census, 1880; Ringgold County, Iowa, Census, 1880, vol. 28, sheet 21, line 26; Ringgold County, Iowa, Recorder’s Office, book 14 of Misely, p. 594.

  ACM, int. by James T. Vallière, n.d., AAA; SLM, int. by Kathleen Shorthall for Life, 1959, Time/Life Archives; SLM, int. by CG, c. 1956.

  Interviews

  Margaret Louise Archbold; R. L. Archbold; Madelon Bedell; Charles Bennett; Jeremy Capillé; John Cook; Lois Cook; Marjorie Cook; Robert Cooter; Irene Crippen; James Dawson; Martha Dawson; Karen Del Pilar; Josephine Eighme; Margaret Eighme; Marietta Eighme; Marie Ferre; B. H. Friedman; Gary Hassell; Allan Herrick; Clair Heyer; Hazel Heyer; Dorothy Hitt; Zetta Houston; Harry Jackson; Wilbur Johnson; Reuben Kadish; John Kiburz; Barbara Kiburz; LK; Carl Lightner; Helen Lightner; Eleanor Lynch; Dean McClure; Donald McClure; Margaret Ann McClure; Paul McClure: ACM; Elizabeth Nelson; Frances Overholtzer; Wayne Overholtzer; CCP; CCP (int. by SWP); EFP; FLP; Jonathan Pollock; MLP; MJP; SWP; Ed Robertson; Patricia Rolf; Lucile Schoppe; Marvin Smith; Patsy Southgate; Janet Tidrick; Helen Walker; Leonard Zick, Jr.

  NOTES

  “Scotch and Irish”: Arts & Architecture, Feb. 1944. Godfrey Augustus Speck: Speck, p. 1. Marriage to Sarah Townsend: Speck, pp. 2–3. Samuel and Jane Speck: Speck, pp. 72–73. “Weaver of woolens”: SMP to Crippen, Jan. 6, 1957. Archibald and Eliza Jane: Speck, p. 73. Lettie Boyd: Crippen. Pushing into continent: Clair Heyer. Reasons for immigration: Wall, pp. 55, 13. Specks leaving Ohio: Speck, p. 73. “He who paints pictures”: Wall, p. 14. “Beautiful land”: Sage, p. 3. Also interpreted as “drowsy ones”; Wall, p. 14. Capture of Indians: Wall, p. 12. “Grand rolling prairie”: Albert M. Lea, Notes on the Wisconsin Territory (Philadelphia: H. S. Tanner, 1836), p. 14, q. in Wall, pp. 13–14. Some 200,000 settlers: Wall, p. 49. Probable Speck route: See Wall, p. 49. Land prices: Wall, pp. 118, 123.

  “Blue stem”; “higher than a horse’s”: Cornwall, “Some of the Recollections and History of
Herbert F. Cornwall,” n.p. Land preparation; prairie breakers: Wall, pp. 123–25. “Freeze chickens”: Belzer, “Emeline,” p. 6. Diseases; plagues; grain prices: Wall, p. 124. Indian uprisings: Wall, p. 60. “To get land”: Wall, pp. 64–65. “Do-less”: Belzer, Emeline, p. 4.

  Women’s determination: Capillé: “The history of the United States is built on people like my grandmother. I mean, you don’t react. You watch your children and your husband being shot down by the Indians in the wagon train and you pick up the rifle and you go on. That was her idea of how a competent, strong woman functions.” Tale of unhitched wagon: Belzer, “Emeline,” p. 4: The two people were Francis and Martha Cornwall. Barclay Cappoc; Iowans with John Brown: Wall, p. 99. Some 70,000 Iowa men: Wall, p. 108. “Liberty Pole”: Belzer, “Emeline,” p. 8. Death of Elizabeth Speck: Speck, p. 73.

  Jennie’s unpredictability: SMP to CCP, EFP, and Jeremy, 1939. Changes in Jennie: Margaret Eighme. Severe side of Jennie: Crippen. “Stricter than the Methodists”: Wayne Overholtzer. “Almost Sabbath”: Margaret Eighme. The Eighmes, longtime residents of Tingley, knew both Jennie McClure and Lizzie Pollock and their families. Forbidden to play baseball: FLP. Only “p’sams” allowed: Margaret Eighme. Dancing “the last straw’: Frances Overholtzer, who once boarded with Jennie McClure. Jennie proud of handiwork: Crippen; Clair Heyer. The “40 yards of blankets”: SMP to Crippen. “Talking about”: Herbert Cornwall, q. in Belzer, “Emeline,” p. 10. “Busy hands”: CCP. Leonard Zick noticed the same characteristic in his mother, Stella’s sister Nell.

  Effects of Civil War on Iowa women: Wall, p. 114; Noun, p. 23. “Any woman”: Lizzie Bunnell, Peru, Ind., Mayflower, Aug. 1, 1861, q. in Noun, p. 24. Girls disguising themselves: Wall, p. 113. “Spirit of equality”; “the first state”: Tilton, lecture, Dec. 1866–Jan. 1867, q. in Noun, p. 72. “Women were classed”: Anna Dickinson, “Women and Idiots” (lecture), 1868, q. in Noun, p. 90. Iowa women’s rights bill: Noun, p. 222. Marriage of Jennie Speck: Speck, p. 73

  John Robinson McClure’s ancestry: Donald McClure: see Honeyman, p. 60. SMP to Crippen, Jan. 6, 1957: “Great Grand Pa Boyd was born in Ireland, a linene weaver My Grand Mother & Dad on my Mothers side of the houses Great Grand Mother McClure wove first piece of linen when 16. 40 yards of blankets 107 yards of carpet There house burned 1 a.m. 1-9-1870 loom was burned to married October 7, 1873 had a hard time getting Uncle out he was upstairs.” McClures’ route to Iowa: Dean McClure.

  McKee McClure: Dean McClure; Crippen. The closest name in the cemetery is James McKee McClure, but this may have been his uncle; Crippen notes that there is some “confusion in the graveyard.” Ann Reid McClure was a cousin of Whitelaw Reid, prominent owner of the New York Tribune, ambassador to the Court of St. James’s, and Republican vice-presidental candidate in 1892. “Exposed to cholery”; Jennie McClure to Crippen, 1933. The letter proceeds: ”Your Uncle John Father & Mother come around from Ohio on the Ohio river was expecting to go to Morning Sun left the boat at Burlington & was going across crountry & his Father had been exposed to cholery on the rivery & he died before they got to Morning Sun. your Uncle John was only about 2 years old then his Mother didnt marry again till your uncle was 5 years old & she married a man by the name of Willson. am tiard will have to rest takes me so long to tell a little From your Aunt Jennie Mc.” Death of McKee McClure: Honeyman, p. 60: The family got off the boat at Keokuk, and he died at Fort Madison. Jennie McClure to Crippen, 1933: They got off at Burlington, and he died before getting to Morning Sun. Having discovered other inaccuracies in stories assembled by Honeyman, we have accepted Jennie McClure as the more reliable source.

  Marriage to Adam Willson: Crippen; Dean McClure; Honeyman, p. 60. Move to Sharon, Iowa: “Obituary—J. R. McClure,” Tingley Vindicator, Apr. 1917. “McClure Trait”: Bennett: J. R. McClure “was more or less of a quiet sort—a hardworking, quiet sort of person.” He must have been studious as well. Bennett: “The McClures were pretty tightlipped. They didn’t talk freely.” Further travels of J. R. McClure: “Obituary—J. R. McClure,” Tingley Vindicator, Apr. 1917. Log house: Bennett. Stella Pollock born: Honeyman, p. 60.

  Small farm: J. R. McClure’s farm consisted of 80 acres: the average was 160 acres. Son more welcome: Clair Heyer. Numbing routine: Ethyl Smith Romans to Heyer, 1965, in TCHC, p. 72. Sunday supper: Mary Irving Link, “Childhood Days in Tingley, 1916–1922,” in TCHC, p. 71. “They wouldn’t even hardly”: Wayne Overholtzer. Fruit butter: Leason, p. 146. Molasses: Leason, p. 24. Hominy: Leason, p. 190. Preparations for winter: Daisy Smith Heyer to Clair Heyer, 1965, in TCHC, p. 72; Ethyl Smith Romans to Clair Heyer, 1965, in TCHC, p. 73. Pie: Leason, p. 232.

  Stella as a child: Del Pilar; Dean McClure. “A strong individual”: Del Pilar. Description of Stella: Crippen and others. Anna quiet and thoughtful; Mary effervescent: Margaret Eighme. Member of Presbyterian Church: Crippen: “Obituary—Cordelia Jane Speck McClure,” Tingley Vindicator, July 1941. “To heaven by short cut”: Tidrick. “Hellbound”: Clair Heyer. “Hardshelled”: Clair Heyer: see “Tingley United Presbyterian Church,” in TCHC, pp. 66–68. Birth of Samuel Cameron and David Leslie: Speck, p. 61. Best land taken: Sage, p. 100. “Heartbreak deals”: Bennett. Grasshopper plague: Leason, n.p. in photocopy. Hog cholera: TCHC, p. 101. Corn prices; heavy rains: TCHC, pp. 9–10.

  Railroad coming to Tingley: O. C. House, “Early History,” Mount Ayr Record-News, Aug. 27, 1931, in TCHC, p. 8. Humeston and Shenandoah: Wayne Overholtzer. Thomas Jefferson: Wall, p. 118: Jefferson “liked classical symmetry in his buildings, semantic precision in his laws, and geometric accuracy on his maps.” Land Ordinance of 1785: TCHC, p. 101. McClures moving to section 18: Crippen. Buildings and businesses: O. C. House, “Early History,” Mount Ayr Record-News, Aug. 27, 1931, in TCHC, p. 8. Calling it a village: Clair Heyer. Plans for opera house: O. C. House, “Early History,” Mount Ayr Record-News, Aug. 27, 1931, in TCHC, p. 8.

  Euphonia Isabell: Also called Fronia Isabelle and Euphronia in family records. Stella acting as mother: Dean McClure. Kate Peckham: Clair Heyer. Reliance on Stella: Dean McClure. Euphonia’s death: Walker; Dean McClure. “A little Dower”: The message on the tombstone of Roy’s sister Nina.

  Move to Tingley: Crippen. For Stella a liberation: MJP. Ladies’ clubs: TCHC, p. 67. Raphael to Lord Byron: “Home Culture Club.” Women who belonged to the club would meet monthly to present reports on topics assigned the previous month. In April 1908, the general topic was the fine arts, with talks on Raphael and Rosa Bonheur; TCHC, p. 67; see also Bennett. “Art and art consciousness”: Pemberton, “Memoir of Three Decades.” Nearest library: In Fairfield, Iowa; see Wall, pp. 194–95. Clair Heyer: Like most farm families, the McClures would have kept only a few books of poetry and a copy of Meredith’s Lucile in addition to the Bible. Lecture series: Wall, p. 195; Bedell. Female domain; “intellectual and artistic”: Clair Heyer. Piano and art teachers; the Castle at Chillon: Clair Heyer; Crippen. “When I was young”: Q. by ACM.

  Stella’s resemblance to Aunt Stella: Marietta Eighme. Josephine Eighme: Her nickname was “Aunt Stell.” “When you are in a distant land”: Aug. 13, 1889; Stella Lorimor, autograph book in possession of Dean McClure. Fine dresses; linen napkins: Crippen. Sealed invitations: Josephine Eighme. Victorian decor; strolling into town: Schoppe. White collar; “I sat”: Frances Overholtzer. “She was correct”: Marietta Eighme. Description of Stella Lorimor: Crippen; Margaret Eighme; Marietta Eighme; Josephine Eighme; Wayne Overholtzer; Schoppe; see “Obituary—Cordelia Jane Speck McClure,” Tingley Vindicator, July 1941. Crippen: Stella Lorimor was “solid. Yes she was solid. She had a sense of humor, she had it, but I’ll tell you, the Specks, they didn’t go around with a smile on their face. No, they were very serious people. They really and truly were. Aunt Stella was the same way as Stella [Pollock], quiet and tall and heavy featured but very stylish.” Wayne Overholtzer: Stella Lorimor was a “stern woman, very stern.” World beyond Iowa: Stella Lorimor, autograph book. “She was a big woman”: Frances Overholtzer. “It
was kind of hard”: Josephine Eighme.

  Stella watching Aunt Stella: Crippen. More a model than Jennie McClure: Margaret Eighme; Marietta Eighme. “Kind of short and loud”: Josephine Eighme. “She knew what she wanted”: CCP. Playing with Cam and Les: Clair Heyer. “Devilment” with Cam and Les: Wayne Overholtzer. Landing before justice of the peace: Clair Heyer; record book of the justice of the peace, Tingley, 1899: Les was arrested and charged with mischief, destroying property, and disturbing the peace. He pled guilty to “unlawful assembly” and was fined $3.00 plus $.60 and given a suspended sentence of ten days.

  Les falling behind in school: FLP. Sandlot baseball: Dean McClure. Roughhousing with Cam and Les: Cooter describes Stella roughhousing in a similar manner with her sons many years later; see also ACM. Anna’s illness; Stella Lorimor’s marriage: Margaret Eighme.

  2. SENSITIVE MEN

  SOURCES

  See chapter 1.

  NOTES

  Jackson not talking about father: Busa: “Jackson always talked about his mother. Never said a goddanmed word about his father.” Roy’s reticence about past: ACM; CCP; FLP. Beliefs about adoption: Crippen; MJP. McCoy family Bible: Martha Dawson, a distant relative who finally penciled the name “Le Roy” into the Bible on Oct. 14, 1983, during an interview with the authors.

  Alexander from County Donegal: Marjorie Cook; Houston. Arriving in 1774: Houston. Chaplain in army: Martha Dawson. Dickinson College: Marjorie Cook; Ferre. Later career: Marjorie Cook. In 1799, in a sectarian dispute between the church’s conservative faction, called Old Lights, and liberal reformers, New Lights, Alexander McCoy’s name was stricken from the Presbyterian rolls and he established a renegade presbytery more in conformity with his conservative views. Presbyterian legacy: Crunden, p. 15: “From its birth in the Middle West, a generation of intelligent youth, though remaining devoted to their parents, resisted efforts to compel them into the ministry or missionary work. … Over the long term, their goal was an educated democracy that would create laws that would, in turn, produce a moral democracy. The place for Christianity was in this world.” Roy’s brother John became a minister after graduating from Sterling College, a Presbyterian school in Kansas; Nelson. See also George Davis Herron, q. in Crunden, p. 49.