Jackson Pollock

by Steven Naifeh

  “Miners and prostitutes”: JP to CCP and FLP, n.d. Jail: JP must have been arrested at this point in his trip, because Manuel didn’t know anything about it and it had already happened by the time JP arrived in St. Louis. “Hooverville”: Primm. “Spavined Fords”: “No One Has Starved,” p. 28. “Where the curvature”: Sevareid. Great exodus to come: See Allen, pp. 157–72. “Black blizzards”: See Allen, pp. 157–72. “A new social dimension”: Sevareid, p. 41. “Cutthroats”: JP to CCP and FLP, n.d. “Tex-KT”: Sevareid, p. 42. Criminals and derelicts: Sevareid, p. 42. Changing West: Braun and Branchick, p. 46. Pilfered ice: Sevareid, p. 46. Bread a dime; meal a quarter; “boes”: Delaney. Racing to the A&P; coffee shops and soup lines: Busa. “You didn’t have to”: Delaney. Railway “deeks”: Sevareid, p. 41. Indulgent train operators: Sevareid, p. 43. “Hotshots”: Delaney. “[I] rather Imagined”; “well-built”: Sevareid, p. 44. “Terrible”; “scary”: Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel.

  League classmate: Busa. Jackson’s homosexual experiences: Busa, to our knowledge, was the only male friend to whom JP opened up about his homosexual desires; he was certainly one of the few people close enough to JP to have elicited such candor. But Busa was by no means our only source on the issue of JP’s confused sexuality. Reuben Kadish, perhaps JP’s closest friend outside his family and a close friend of Sande’s, admits that he and Sande both assumed that JP had homosexual tendencies and experiences: “There is no question about it. And I know it was painful to Sande.” “I don’t think I should comment, or judge anybody morally or amorally or immorally,” Kadish says. “The big thing that is made about Proust and his homosexuality, for instance, is that if the mores of the time didn’t permit that kind of honesty, that kind of declaration, I’m not sure he would have done it any other way. Gide, the same thing. There are a lot of people in that particular area. It comes out in the end, I suppose, but what effect does it have on the work?”

  According to Buffie Johnson: “Tony Smith told me about the time when Jackson was with some buddy of his, who was not a practicing homosexual. Well, let’s call him John. They were kind of at the reeling stage and somebody suggested doing something and Jackson said, ‘Oh, hell, John, let’s go home and fuck.’” See also “Fruits and Nuts,” Chapter 30, for material from Bennett and Cabral on JP’s participation in the homosexual subculture of Provincetown in 1944. See also “The Last Act,” Chapter 43, for material from Carone on JP’s possible homosexual activities in Springs.

  Others, like Conrad Marca-Relli, who did not know of specific homosexual experiences, would later say, “I think he may have had doubts about his being homosexual.” “Certainly there was a dormant gay quality and he resented it in himself—he didn’t know how to handle it,” said Fritz Bultman; q. in Potter, p. 214. “Jackson was very up-front with Lee about his homosexual instincts and about his fear of them,” says David Gibbs. According to Sanford Friedman, Jackson’s bisexual inclinations were “a subject she was not averse to referring to and discussing briefly.”

  Violet de Laszlo, one of JP’s psychiatrists, says that anxiety over homosexual feelings may have been at the root of JP’s problems. Dr. David Peretz, a psychoanalyst on the faculty of Columbia who has read many of our research materials, says that JP was much too unresolved for labels of any kind but that his sexual trauma, if not his sexual inclinations, is crucial to understanding JP’s psychological makeup.

  “He looked”: Horton. “[Jack] looks”: SMP to CCP and FLP, n.d. “My trip”: JP to CCP and FLP, n.d. “Grim misery”: Primm, professor of history at the University of Missouri at St. Louis: “I have never seen a description either in private papers or in the press or anywhere else implying that it was anything other than grim and miserable. To present this as a kind of colorful thing would be a terrible distortion.” “Gave swell color”: JP to CCP and FLP, n.d. Brown and Sande roommates: ABP. Letters to Pacifico: Laxineta. Pacifico dating another man: Horton; Laxineta: The man was Jack Laxineta, whom Berthe eventually married. Berthe claims that while JP was in New York they wrote each other “just about every day” and that JP’s “letters from New York were love letters.” It is hard to imagine JP writing regularly, let alone daily. Visit to Jackson; Crude mural: Horton; Laxineta.

  Drive to Wrightwood: JP to CCP and FLP, n.d.; see also LRP to FLP, July 12, 1931. Roy laid off; federal road job; job for Jay: LRP to FLP, July 12, 1931. “Raw food”: JP to CCP and FLP, n.d. “[Jay] and I”: LRP to CCP and EFP, Sept. 27, 1931. “Hope [Jack] finds”: LRP to FLP, July 12, 1931. Old friends form new community: Also included: Jules Langsner, a young poet, and Leonard Stark, a photographer; Kadish. Feitelson and Macdonald-Wright: Cherry. “A combination”: Fletcher Martin to Dore Ashton, Oct. 21, 1974, q. in Ashton, p. 18. Arensberg home: Ashton, p. 20. Goldstein leaving Otis; new style: Ashton, p. 21; see Mother and Child, Ashton, p. 9. Musical trips and records; weekly reports: Lehman. “The old bunch”: JP to CCP, n.d.

  Kadish material: Kadish. “You don’t need”: Q. by Kadish. Description of Kadish: Photo in possession of Kadish. Vilna: Now called Vilnius. Samuel Shuster: Kadish: Samuel came to this country “around 1911, 1912.” “Kadish” was Samuel’s given name. Kadish an intellectual artist: Lehman. “Imaging power”: Kadish. Record-setting heat: Clarke, “The Miracle of ‘32,” p. 77: The record heat spell of August 1931 worried the organizers of the 1932 Olympics. Visiting museums and galleries; evenings over beer: Kadish. Southwest Museum: Klyver: The summer of 1931 was a time of considerable transition for the museum. From 1930 to 1932, the northwest coast objects were moved from the lobby to the auditorium to a permanent northwest coast hall. After opening in 1914 with an undefined collection, from natural history to the fine arts, the Southwest Museum took on a new director in 1926 who limited its focus to Native American art. Today it is “the major collection west of the Mississippi.” Southwestern and Plains artifacts; Pacific Coast baskets: Southwest Museum Handbook, 1931, pp. 6–13.

  Trips to Los Angeles County Museum: Kadish. Old masters and local art: Rusk: There were constant shows of local art during this period, including “Artists of Southern California,” 1930–31, and a one-woman show by Grace Clements, July 1–15, 1931; Los Angeles Museum Catalogues of Art Exhibits, A-Z, 1931–32. South Pacific exhibits: Kadish; Rozaire. Tapa cloths: Made by pounding mulberry bark.

  Roy finding Jackson a job: Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel. Tolegian invited along: JP to CCP and FLP, n.d.; SMP to FLP, n.d. Sawing: Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel. “Jack and Tolegian”: SMP to FLP, n.d. Continued heat: SMP to FLP, n.d. Arguments between Jackson and Tolegian: Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel. Manuel accusing supervisor; Jackson threatening Tolegian: Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel; Manuel Tolegian, q. in Potter, p. 40. “Cut my throat”: Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel. “I have finished”: JP to CCP, n.d. JP didn’t join Sande and Arloie on their trip to San Francisco to see the Rivera mural, which they didn’t get to see because it was “in a private meeting room for the Stock Exchange members. They also saw [Bill] Hayden for a moment—Sande as usual was in a hell of a hurry so did no good there. After we left last year Sande did some interesting water colors—but did not do anything through the winter”; JP to CCP, n.d. “I haven’t done”: JP to CCP, n.d.

  Roy depressed and ill: LRP to CCP and EFP, Sept. 27, 1931: “I am feeling rotten today have a cold on my bronchol tube … I haven’t any kick coming I feel like I might be good this summer for several years yet.” “I wish”: LRP to FLP, July 12, 1931. “‘The most unfatherly”: Manuel Tolegian, q. by Araks. “I don’t know”: JP to CCP, n.d. Jackson driving to Oklahoma City: LRP to CCP and EFP, Sept. 27, 1931. “Dad thinks”: JP to CCP, n.d. Charles and Elizabeth: They convinced the family they were married that summer. One family tree (Honeyman), probably prepared with Stella’s help, listed the marriage as July 15, 1932. Jackson stealing Benton’s favor: CCP; q. in Potter, p. 32. Elizabeth furious at Charles: EFP: “Charles is the most unenvying man, entirely lacking in jealousy.” Tenth Street studio: 49 East Tenth Stre
et. EFP: It was Charles’s studio; Frank and Marie say they visited JP there prior to May 1932. Meals prepared at 47 Horatio Street: Potter (p. 40) says that JP moved with Charles to the Horatio Street apartment, but Frank and Marie say he did not.

  Registration: JP registered on October 12, 1931; registration card for JP. Mural Painting: Registration card for JP. No course in murals: THB to FVOC, Mar. 31, 1964. Jackson receiving private tutoring: Manuel Tolegian, q. in Potter, p. 34. Benton, visiting Tolegian in the late 1960s, saw his copy of Bryan Robertson’s book on JP, pointed to one of the drawings, and exclaimed, “I did that! That’s not Pollock’s work”; q. by Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel. “Great heavy X”: Jules. “I used one”: THB to FVOC, Mar. 31, 1964.

  Discussions between Gorky and Davis: Pavia. Darrow at League: Registration card for Darrow. Ethnology publication: CCP, q. in Rubin, “JP and the Modern Tradition, Part I: 2,” p. 22 n. 9. Editor’s argument: Powell, p. 20. “Man starts”: Q. in OC&T III, p. 2. “Barbed-wire” handwriting: Araks Tolegian. “His mind was absolutely”: THB, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. “Jack did not have a logical mind”; THB to FVOC, Mar. 31, 1964. “The deep wellsprings”: Artist, p. 336.

  “Continuous running”; “Jack fought”: Horn, “JP,” p. 83. “Damn fine colorist”: Q. in Burroughs, p. 118. Benton considered poor colorist: Jules; Darrow, q. in Potter, p. 43; Manuel Tolegian, q. in Potter, p. 34. “The human element”: Q. in Burroughs, p. 118. This was all the more damning since most of his contemporaries considered Benton’s work lacking in “the human element”; see Craven, p. 19: “His depth of thinking is not to be disputed; all that his art requires is greater depth of feeling.” Charles’s paintings: CCP, q. in Potter, p. 38. Jackson’s works turned to the wall: FLP. Washington Square Show: The show began in 1931, organized by Vernon Porter; Campbell. Date of show: Campbell. Jackson on MacDougal Alley; posing: Delaney. Five to ten dollars: Kaz; Manuel Tolegian, int. by Hoag, Feb. 25, 1965. No one bought: Delaney.

  Jackson’s visits to Bentons: MLP. Benton discovering harmonica: Artist, p. 256: It was given to T. P. by Tolegian. Both O’Connor (p. 51) and Friedman (p. 33) say the musicales began in the fall of 1933. In Artist (p. 256), Benton dates them from the work slump following completion of the New School murals in early 1931. By winter 1931–32, JP was practicing the mouth harp every night; JP to LRP, Feb. 1932. Benton became so involved in his new hobby that he invented a new system of musical notation for the harmonica, replacing traditional musical notes with numbers and using arrows to indicate when to blow (pointing up) and when to suck (pointing down); Burroughs, p. 120. “A revelation”: Artist, p. 256. Composers; “we commenced”: Artist, p. 257. Benton’s group playing: Busa; photo in Burroughs, p. 120. Mandatory attendance at musicales: Busa. Charles on mouth harp; “I was”: CCP. Steffen on dulcimer: Kadish: Sande eventually played the harmonica, too. Jackson playing harmonica at Wrightwood: FLP. Jackson smashing violin: CCP, q. in Potter, p. 38; LK. “[I] can’t play”: JP to LRP, Feb. 1932. “Enthusiastically”: Q. in Burroughs, p. 119.

  Typhoid fever; “the grip”: JP to LRP, Feb. 1932. Whitney murals: American, p. 67. “Hard luck”: JP to LRP, Feb. 1932. Jackson assuming Tom’s duties: There is no direct evidence, but Frank says he assumed them when he occupied a similar position in the Benton family. “From the beginning”: Kron. Cooing in sultry voice: CCP. Smoothing frustrations: Piacenza. “She was a very flirtatious”: Kadish. Emerson: “She was often flirtatious with other men … even with my husband, and he was crazy about her.” Jackson’s seduction: Gibbs, recalling L.K: JP later told Lee Krasner that “Mrs. Benton played with him and titillated him and got him all excited.” Frank’s arrival; “she had winning ways”: FLP. Rita thirty-seven: Kron: Rita was born about 1895; her brother Santos, in 1890. Frank’s trip to Harlem club with Rita; her hand on his knee: FLP.

  Tales of sexual adventure: In a conversation about the past between Charles and Frank in October 1985, the only topic that sparked deep enthusiasm was their tales of visits to red-light districts, Charles’s in New Orleans in 1934, Frank’s in the Panama Canal Zone in 1928. “You know how dogs”: Q. in Burroughs, p. 95. Rabelaisian fantasy: Benton used the word “Rabelaisian” in Artist, p. 96. “Liked sexy women”: Rand. Tolegian corresponding with future wife: Araks Tolegian. Tolegian scouting New York: Kron. Katz fifteen: Kaz was born March 9, 1917; Kaz. Katz a regular at parties: Kaz. By the end of the decade this precinct had been divided into the Midtown South Precinct and the Midtown North Precinct. Paddy wagons: Kaz. Although far from prudish, the thirties were not years of unrestrained sexuality, partly because the Depression affected romance: “How could a guy go after a girl if he didn’t have any money to take her out,” says Kaz. Kamrowski: “In those days, there was no sexual revolution and marriage was very expensive.”

  “‘Blocs,’ psychic obstructions”: THB to FVOC, Mar. 31, 1964. Rumors of Jackson’s “affair”: Wheeler, recalling Morris Kantor. “I could see”: Horn. “Of course, feeling”: Q. in Burroughs, p. 118. “Rita Benton played”: JP, q. by L.K, q. by Gibbs. Jackson’s binges: Delaney; Kaz. Katz’s studio; Lincoln Square Arcade: Kaz. It was on the site of the current Lincoln Center. Jackson at League dances: Kaz; Pavia. Penthouse parties: Kaz. Money from Stella: JP to LRP, Feb. 1932, mentions a “token” sent from home. Jack Frost; corn whiskey; Sterno: Kaz.

  Christmas Eve incident: Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel. Church of the Nativity: Given Tolegian’s directions, this is the only church it could have been. The old Greek Revival building was torn down in 1970. “Jack walked”: Manuel Tolegian, q. by Araks. See CCP, q. in Friedman, p. 26. Scuffles and brawls: Delaney. Saturday night bouts: McNeil. Hudson River incident: Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel. “Angry”; “I had to jump”: Manuel Tolegian, q. by Araks. Jackson working himself up: Pavia. “He’d look you over”: Wilson. “Pugnacious and ornery”: Jules. “He’d walk up”: Busa. “He bragged”: Jules.

  Family rarely saw misbehavior: CCP; EFP. Visit to Jackson’s apartment: MLP: It took place in 1931. But the return address on his letters shows JP was still in Charles’s studio in February 1932. Since the incident precipitated JP’s departure, either it occurred after February or JP was still using Charles’s address for mail. “No particular interest”; Rose taking a liking: MLP. Quizzical squint: Horn. Jackson cutting wood; Marie’s hat destroyed: MLP: It was “the most disorganized party I’d ever been to.” Jackson aggressive with Rose: FLP; MLP. Ax incident: MLP. “You’re a nice girl”: Q. by MLP. Charles’s painting already sold: MLP. Charles unemotional: EFP; Capillé. Jackson evicted: MLP. Jackson and Frank sharing apartment: FLP: He thinks it was near the corner of Thirty-fourth Street and Eighth Avenue. Description of room: MLP. Rose “attractive”; “reserved”: FLP. Independent; Marie meeting Rose: MLP. Seducing Jackson: FLP: “I imagine Rose was employed. She probably had the only money between the two of them.” No dates: MLP.

  15. INTO THE PAST

  SOURCES

  Books, articles, manuscripts, film, document, and records

  Adams, The Epic of America; Allen, Since Yesterday; Baigell, THB; Baigell, ed., A THB Miscellany; THB, An American in Art (American); THB, An Artist in America (Artist); Braun and Branchick, THB; Burroughs, THB; Congdon, The Thirties; Friedman, JP; Helm, Modern Mexican Painters; Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; Jewell, Have We an American Art?; Kootz, New Frontiers in American Painting; Lane and Larsen, eds., Abstract Painting and Sculpture in America, 1927–1944; Marling, Tom Benton and His Drawings; OC&T, JP; Potter, To a Violent Grave; Schlesinger, The Crisis of the Old Order; Weaver, Los Angeles.

  THB, “Art and Nationalism,” Modern Monthly, May 1934; THB, “Art vs. the Mellon Gallery,” Common Sense, June 1941; THB, “Form and the Subject,” Arts, June 1924; Thomas Craven, “THB,” Scribner’s, Oct. 1937; Axel Horn, “JP: The Hollow and the Bump,” Carleton Miscellany, Summer 1966; Edward Alden Jewell, “American Painting,” Creative Art, Nov. 1931; “U.S. Scene,” Time, Dec. 24, 1934.

  Edward Alden Je
well, “Orozco and Benton Paint Murals for New York,” NYT, Nov. 23, 1930.

  Ellen Gross Landau, “LK: A Study of Her Early Career (1926–1949)” (Ph.D. thesis), Newark: University of Delaware, 1981; FVOC, “The Genesis of JP: 1912–1943” (Ph.D. thesis), Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1965.

  Strokes of Genius: JP (film), Court Productions, 1984.

  Chronology prepared by CCP for EFP, Feb. 1975, AAA.

  Registration cards for Whitney Darrow, Jr., JP, and Manuel Tolegian, Art Students League Archives; THB Classbooks, 1930–31, 1931–32, Art Students League Archives.

  Interviews

  Peter Busa; Lawrence Campbell; Jeremy Capillé; Herman Cherry; Betty Clausen; Whitney Darrow, Jr.; Joseph Delaney; Gottlieb Friesinger; Axel Horn; Mervin Jules; Reuben Kadish; Stewart Klonis; ACM; George McNeil; Philip Pavia; ABP; CCP; EFP; FLP; MJP; MLP; Milton Resnick.

  NOTES

  Letters to Jackson: Some inferred from JP’s return letters, notably JP to LRP, Feb. 1932; JP to SMP, May 1932; others as indicated. Frank in debt: MLP. Twelve dollar coat: FLP. Brockway visit: JP to LRP, Feb. 1932, and JP to SMP, May 1932; Brockway referred to as “Charlie B.” “Growing up” problems: CCP. “The usual stress”: SLM to CCP, July 1941. Kadish: “Sure, they were difficult years, they were difficult years for a lot of young people.” Million jobless: There were 1,160,000 in New York City (“No One Has Starved,” p. 25) and 12,000,000 jobless in the country; Schlesinger, p. 248. Janitorial work: Darrow.

  April: Dating based on JP to LRP, Feb. 1932, and JP to SMP, May 1932; in the first letter, mailed probably in mid-April, Charles is still waiting to hear; in the second, written only weeks before he left, Charles is no longer included. Charles helping arrange trip: Darrow, in “Strokes of Genius.” Darrow; “getting away”: Darrow. Expenses would be “$25 to $30”: Q. by Darrow: He got $35 for a cartoon in those days and had saved about $300 from sales. Schoppe wanting ride home: MLP. Date of trip; Packard: MLP. Putting car in order: JP to SMP, May 1932. Trip to Nebraska; visit to Marie’s uncle; Marie’s uncle shocked: MLP: “The next morning, Uncle Elijah was going to take us all to breakfast in the hotel dining room, but when he saw these four unshaven, really grungy looking guys in the daylight, he took us to a little café off the main drag instead where not too many people would see us.” “Looking very wild”; storm; Bryce Canyon; changing tire; Wrightwood: MLP.