Jackson Pollock

by Steven Naifeh

  “Home of the blues”: Marling, p. 50. Street scenes: Marling, p. 55, fig. 2–5. Legalized prostitution: Storyville enjoyed a legal existence from 1897 to 1917; The WPA Guide to New Orleans, p. 216. “Palaces”; “cribs”: The WPA Guide to New Orleans, p. 216. Legend lingers; Mae West’s movie, Belle of the Nineties, was originally to have been called Belle of New Orleans; The WPA Guide to New Orleans, p. 217. Procuresses: The WPA Guide to New Orleans, p. 219. French Quarter revives: Arceneaux. “Everything goes”: Q. in The WPA Guide to New Orleans, p. 217. Elizabeth on Jackson’s sex life: EFP: “I never did see him with a woman. No. Never. Never.”

  “The new Sahara”: Allen, p. 160. Dust Bowl: Allen, pp. 157–58. “Black blizzard”: Allen, p. 158. Farmhouses deserted: Allen, pp. 160–61: A survey in 1936 of a seven-county area in southeastern Colorado showed 2,878 houses still occupied, 2,811 abandoned. “Deeper than”: R. D. Lusk, “The Life and Death of 470 Acres,” The Saturday Evening Post, Aug. 13, 1938, q. in Congdon, p. 386. Road clogged; “square-shouldered”: Allen, p. 160. “It was the year”: Chronology prepared by CCP for EFP, Feb. 1975. Arrival in Los Angeles: SMP to CCP and JP, Aug. 30, 1934: She thanks them for stopping on their way back east at Tingley to visit her relatives. Allowing for the visit to Martha’s Vineyard at the beginning of the summer, for at least a few weeks in Los Angeles, and for news of the boys’ visit to get back to Stella from Tingley, they probably left New York in late June or early July, spent about two weeks on the road, arrived in Los Angeles around the third week of July, and left in mid-August. Power plant work: MJP to CCP, Apr. 23, 1934. Frank and Sande try CWA: SMP to JP, CCP, and EFP, Jan. 1933. Financial retrenchment; “we are eating”: MJP to CCP, Apr. 23, 1934.

  Sande continuing to work: Sande’s job ended in late 1932, after having become part-time in the spring of that year. Sande’s clothing: In the summer of 1931 (dated internally in OC&T IV, p. 211), JP wrote Charles: “Mart [Jay] is wearing a suit he bought in Chico—and Sande wears them out as fast as he gets them.” Commuting to Riverside: ACM; MLP. “Jams”; “most of [them]”: Jay accused one of Sande’s friends of having “sticky fingers.” The friend spent a weekend at the Pollock home, and “several articles disappeared when they left,” Jay wrote Frank. “My mershum cigarette holder was seen in his apartment and I went over after it. Didn’t get it, but gave him a good scare”; MJP to FLP, n.d. Sande’s resorting to self-abuse: Del Pilar: “My father was suicidal. I know that, although I don’t know why. My father was also alcoholic, although my mother would like to say he wasn’t.” “He missed”: MLP. Ascot Speedway: Kadish. Sande not drawing: MJP to CCP: “[Sande] has done very little drawing, if any.” Vicarious artist: ACM. Urged by Kadish to join class: Kadish; JP to SMP, n.d. (dated Oct. 1, 1932, by FVOC in OC&T IV, p. 214). Sande assisting Siqueiros: Kadish; Lehman. On their last project together, a mural for the Workers Cultural Center in the spring of 1934, Sande himself painted one of the central figures, an old woman; Kadish; Lehman.

  “While your out”: JP to SMP, SLM, and MJP, Mar. 25, 1933. Sande living through others: Del Pilar, a psychiatric nurse. “We sure missed”: SMP to CCP and JP, Aug. 30, 1934. October arrival: FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 52. “With 34 cents”: SLM, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. Potter (p. 50) writes that Sande drove back with JP in the fall of 1934, but Sande told Shorthall that he arrived in New York and “looked up Jack.” Stella wrote Charles and JP (Aug. 30, 1934) telling them how Sande had “cried” when they left Los Angeles.

  “‘The proud unsinkable”: Mumford, p. 469. “Stringency”: Brittain, p. 276. Sixteen million jobless: Kazin, p. 4. Strikes: McElvaine, p. 225. Class warfare: The cities were Minneapolis and San Francisco; McElvaine, pp. 224–29. “Among New York”: Sleeper: Edmund Wilson’s book, The American Jitters, captured the sense of disintegration. “Wobblies”: Kazin, p. 33. Paper bags: Kazin, introduction to New York Panorama, p. xiv. Sidewalks blocked: Hamilton, p. 19. Coffee wagon: Hamilton, p. 22. Butts and newspapers; odd jobs: Josephson, p. 79. Thousands coming to city: Josephson, p. 80. Makeshift dwellings: Ellis, p. 532. Emergency shelter: Kazin, introduction to New York Panorama, p. xiv. “Less sweet”: Josephson, p. 79. “Serried rows”: Hamilton, p. 19. “‘Nowadays’”: Josephson, p. 75. Location of shanties: Hamilton, p. 22. “Depression shanties”: CCP. Palpable despair: Hamilton, p. 24. People dying: Josephson, p. 75. “Going on Relief”; “picketing”: Ellis, p. 552. “Do you want”: Ellis, pp. 533–34: “A total of 1,595 New Yorkers killed themselves in 1932—the highest number since 1900.”

  One of four jobless: Ellis, p. 533. Top floor apartment: Kron says the building was between eight and thirteen stories high, but it must have been shorter; she would throw rocks at the windows to announce her arrival. Commercial building: Kron. The first floor apparently was used to store lumber; Friedman, p. 34. Alone among rubble: Kron. Depression shanties: Chronology prepared by CCP for EFP, Feb. 1975. Barn-like: Wilson. Other visitors: Including CCP, Busa, Tolegian, and Wilson. Bringing cookware; “pornographic murals”: Kron. Bentons, Pratt, and Marot: Mumford; Scott. “Swabbing it down”; five dollars a week: SLM, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. Pay at Klein’s: $10.80; Ellis, p. 532.

  “Jack was a very”: Rita Benton to FVOC, Mar. 1, 1965, q. in FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 54. Milk deliveries: Piacenza; Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel. Bentons hard up: THB to FVOC, Mar. 31, 1964: “He never tried to borrow money. But, of course, he knew we didn’t have any to spare in those days.” Market for large works: Benton did receive a mural commission in 1934 from the Treasury Department for a mural in the new Federal Post Office, but his relationship with the department deteriorated so badly that he never completed the mural; Artist, p. 383. Only ceramics selling: CCP to FVOC, May 1, 1964, q. in FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 54.

  Rita prompting Jackson: Rita to FVOC, Mar. 1, 1965 (q. in FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 55): “Jack and I went to a place where these ceramics were bought ready to be painted and fired. We bought the china.” Rita says Tom suggested the idea, but she clearly prompted Tom to suggest it. Ceramics workshop: Busa. Tutoring from Benton; “quickly successful”: Artist, p. 334. Rita selling Jackson’s work; “we opened”: Rita Benton to FVOC, Mar. 1, 1965, q. in FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 55. Gifts to Rita: THB to FVOC, Mar. 31, 1964; OC&T 916–21, IV, pp. 3–6. Rita insisting on payments: Rita Benton to FVOC, Mar. 1, 1965; Rita continued to display the gifts proudly on her mantel in the Vineyard until JP’s death and in the house in Kansas City thereafter; Edith Symonds, q. in Potter, p. 48.

  Government aid: McKinzie, p. 76. “A general increase”; “so overcrowded”; starvation: “No One Has Starved,” p. 22: In New York City, twenty people died of starvation in 1932; another twenty-five died of malnutrition. “The form”: Saroyan, p. 17. “The trivial”: Saroyan, p. 19. “The tiny”: Saroyan, p. 18. “Starvation”: Kazin, p. 14. Relief payments: “No One Has Starved,” p. 22: The amounts varied on what William Hodson, executive director of the New York Welfare Council, called “a disaster basis,” from a box of groceries to sixty dollars a month per family. Coffee and bread: Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel. Twenty-five-cent meal: Kazin, introduction to New York Panorama, p. xiv. The 81,000 in breadline: Vorse, p. 293. Tin bowl: Josephson, p. 78. Fifth Avenue: Solomon, p. 67. “I started”: Q. by T. P. Benton. Police calling Rita: Solomon, pp. 67–68. “Trying to wring”: SLM to Kadish, n.d.

  “Sometimes people stole”: Wheeler. Sending money to Frank: SMP to CCP and JP, n.d. Kadish: “I don’t think they were stealing food from the streets.” Sande’s cowboy outfit: Kamrowski. “Tighter than”: Q. by Brooks. “The real problem”: Q. by Araks Tolegian. Palm Garden benefit; Sande on Jackson’s shoulders; “looked for the tallest”: Busa. Sande not stopping Jackson: FLP; Kadish.

  18, A GREAT HOPE FOR AMERICAN PAINTING

  SOURCES

  Books, articles, manuscripts, document, and transcripts

  Ashton, The New York School; THB, An Artist in America (Artist); Biddle, An American Artist’s Story; Burrou
ghs, THB; Craven, THB; Diamonstein, The Art World; Ellis, The Epic of New York City; Friedman, JP; Gaugh, Willem de Kooning; Josephson, Infidel in the Temple; Keppel and Duffus, The Arts in American Life; McElvaine, The Great Depression; McKinzie, The New Deal for Artists; FVOC, ed., The New Deal Art Projects; OC&T, JP; Potter, To a Violent Grave; Purcell, Government and Art; Schlesinger, Jr., The Coming of the New Deal.

  “For Bread Alone,” Time, May 13, 1966; Bruce Glaser, “JP: An Interview with LK,” Arts, Apr. 1967; “Look Down That Road,” Art Digest, May 1, 1935; Gerald M. Monroe, “The ’30s: Art, Ideology and the WPA,” Art in America, Nov.–Dec. 1975; FVOC, “The Genesis of JP: 1912–1943,” Artforum, May 1967; “South Carolina Harvest,” Architectural Record, Jan. 1937.

  “Benton to Quit Hectic City for Missouri Calm,” New York Herald Tribune, Apr. 2, 1935; “Job Goodman, 58, Abstract Painter,” Obituary, NYT, Dec. 24, 1955; “Mrs. T. H. Benton Collection One of Several in Which High Standard is Reached,” NYT, Dec. 1, 1934.

  FVOC, “The Genesis of JP: 1912 to 1943” (Ph.D. thesis), Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1965; May Natalie Tabak, “A Collage” (unpub. ms., n.d.).

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

  LK, int. by Barbara Rose, July 31, 1966, AAA; Dorothy Dehner, LK, Jason McCoy, and Robert Miller int. by Charles Mattox, Mar. 1, 1972, AAA; SLM, int. by Kathleen Shorthall for Life, 1959, Time/Life Archives; Manuel Tolegian, int. by Betty Hoag, Feb. 12, 1965, AAA.

  Interviews

  James Brooks; Peter Busa; Herman Cherry; Dorothy Dehner; Harry Holtzman; Harry Jackson; Reuben Kadish; Gerome Kamrowski; Nathaniel Kaz; Stewart Klonis; LK; Maria Piacenza Kron; Ibram Lassaw; Harold Lehman; John Little; Conrad Marca-Relli; Mercedes Matter; Charles Mattox; ACM; George McNeil; Sophia Mumford; Philip Pavia; CCP; EFP; SWP; Beatrice Ribak; May Tabak Rosenberg; Rachel Scott; Wally Strautin; Theodore Wahl; Roger Wilcox.

  NOTES

  “They’re hiring”: Tabak, “Art Project,” in “Collage,” p. 194. “They were shouting”: Tabak, “Art Project,” in “Collage,” pp. 194–95. “Exhilarating”; “one had to”: Tabak, “Art Project,” in “Collage,” p. 195. Years of destitution: Josephson, p. 385, q. Julien Levy on artists as the “Forgotten Men” of the Depression. Empty galleries: FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 53. Two hundred artists and students: Josephson, p. 386. “It was like winning”: Cherry.

  Prices, imports, and production: McKinzie, p. 4. Artist unemployment: Josephson, p. 374. Market for commercial art: Kamrowski. Stone work prohibited: Biddle, pp. 271–72. Private support limited: FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 53, citing the NYT Index for 1933, pp. 180–81, concerning items about plight of unemployed artists in New York City and the emerging relief and exhibition measures. “Anything reasonable”: Ashton, p. 45. “Out of habit”: Josephson, p. 386. “For the overwhelming”: Q. in Keppel and Duffus, p. 122. Cashing checks; “then a scout”; “the government couldn’t”: Tabak, “Art Project,” in “Collage,” p. 203. Dental work, tickets, meals, and liquor: Josephson, p. 386. Weekly checks: Busa. “Began to seem”: Tabak, “Art Project,” in “Collage,” p. 210. De Kooning making displays: Rosenberg; Gaugh, p. 7. De Kooning, q. by Rosenberg: “You mean, for $23 I can paint all the time?” “I decided”: Q. by friend, name withheld by request. “Really had a field day”: Tabak, “Art Project,” in “Collage,” pp. 210–11. New partners: Josephson, p. 386.

  Date of work relief: Dec. 1932; see Purcell, Government and Art, p. 47. New York program; a hundred artists; art classes: McKinzie, pp. 5–6. Ben-Shmuel’s workshop: There is no direct evidence that Ben-Shmuel’s class was sponsored by this program, although many similar ones were. Biddle letter: Dated May 9, 1933; McKinzie, p. 5. Continued funding for “teachers’ project”: McKinzie, p. 77. PWAP funded: “Federal Art Plan to Provide Funds for Needy Artists,” Art News, Dec. 16, 1933, in Diamonstein, ed., p. 121. “Of the best”: Q. in Treasury Department Order PWB No. 2-c Organization, Oct. 16, 1934 RG/121–118, q. in McKinzie, p. 37. Although the CWA was administered by Roosevelt’s old lieutenant, Harry Hopkins, the PWAP was placed under the authority of the Treasury Department for no better reason than that the Treasury secretary’s wife, Elinor Morgenthau, had expressed an interest in the arts. Efforts modest: PWAP was authorized to receive enough money to support 1,500 artists at $35 to $45 weekly, 1,000 artists at $20 to $30 weekly, and 500 laborers at $15 weekly; Edward Bruce, “Preliminary Plan on Public Works of Art Project” (unpub. paper), Nov. 1933, cited in McKinzie, p. 10.

  “The first applicant”: McKinzie, p. 13. Cleaning statues: McKinzie, p. 29. The project was arranged by Juliana Force with Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. Artistic debate paralleled; “historic social revolution”: Josephson, p. 374. McKinzie, p. 5: Biddle’s “inspiration, clearly, was the experiment in the 1920s, sponsored by Mexican President Alvaro Obregón, in which young artists covered public buildings in Mexico City with murals expressing the ideas of the Mexican revolution,” which produced “what some critics, then and since, have considered the greatest national school of painting since the Italian Renaissance.” About four hundred murals were completed under the auspices of the WPA; Report of the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury to Federal Emergency Relief Administrator—Public Works of Art Project: Dec. 8, 1933, to June 30, 1934 (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Treasury, 1934), p. 7, cited in McKinzie, p. 27.

  Traditionalists: They “saw art as noble and scholarly, and, if it were good, slightly mystical”; McKinzie, p. 7. “Identified with”; “a very small percentage”: NYT, Dec. 13, 1933, cited in McKinzie, p. 12: Among the eight societies that lodged charges against her were the National Sculptors Society, the Society of Mural Painters, the Architectural League, and the American Artists Professional League. “There is a woman”: SLM to Kadish, n.d. “The natural results”: Q. in NYT, Mar. 11, 1934, q. in McKinzie, p. 13.

  One percent for “embellishments”: Edward Bruce, “Suggested Plan for Continuance of the Government Fine Arts Activities Inaugurated under the Public Works of Art Project” (unpub. paper), Apr. 20, 1934, cited in McKinzie, p. 36; see also Ashton, p. 46. “Ending the dole”; “adequate for”: Harry Hopkins to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dec. 14, 1934, cited in McKinzie, p. 76. More than 3,700 artists: In May 1934, Roosevelt authorized money for Bruce’s revised Treasury plan to be implemented, but only for one month; see McKinzie, pp. 35–36. After that, the battle resumed. Union membership doubling: Monroe, “The ’30s,” p. 66.

  PWAP projects abandoned: Ann Cranton, “Public Works of Art Project Report Covering Its Activities and Liquidation” (unpub. paper), 1935, RG121/105, cited in McKinzie, p. 32. Transfer of projects: FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 18. Goodman class: Strautin. Goodman: “Job Goodman”: Director of Instruction at Greenwich House. Born 1897 in Russia; immigrated to U.S. 1905; studied at ASL; died 1955. Jackson off relief: FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 90: JP’s WPA employment records were supplied to FVOC by the Federal Record Center of General Services Administration in St. Louis, Mo.; see also OC&T IV, p. 219. Firemen’s Memorial: OC&T IV, p. 219. Statue of Washington: Carved 1856 by H. K. Brown after an original by Houdon. Joined by Sande: Kadish. Jackson demoted: FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 62. Statue of Peter Cooper: OC&T IV, p. 219. FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 62: Kadish, int. by FVOC, Jan. 7, 1964: In later years, when passing through Cooper Square, JP often recalled cleaning the Cooper statue.

  “That the government”: Josephson, p. 374. “Hell, [artists]”: Q. in Schlesinger, Jr., pp. 263–81. “Put to work”; “that is all”: Q. in Josephson, p. 381. “Piss pot”; “conditions here”: SLM to Kadish, July 16, 1935, q. in Ashton, pp. 33–34. Both proposals approved: The Treasury program began in July 1935; the FAP in August. Percentage of non-relief artists: About 25 percent; “Final Report of Treasury Relief Art Project” (unpub. paper), RG121, cited in McKinzie, p. 39. Aspirations: “Federal Support of Fine Arts” (unpub. memorandum), George Biddle to Edward Bruce, Nov. 16, 1933, Bruce to Biddle, Nov. 22, 1933, Biddle Papers, q. in McKinzie
, p. 10. “The Ritz”: Dubbed by Time, q. in McKinzie, p. 39. Tolegian TRAP artist: Tolegian, int. by Hoag, Feb. 12, 1965. FAP figures: McKinzie, p. 75.

  Creation of WPA: Josephson, p. 373. “Those who are forced”: Q. in McElvaine, p. 266. WPA figures: Josephson, p. 375. Raking leaves: McElvaine, p. 265. Airfields: Ultimately, more than 20,000 playgrounds, schools, hospitals, and airfields were improved or constructed; McElvaine, p. 265. Only 5 percent of WPA funds; 2 percent of WPA employees: Josephson, p. 375. Two hundred artists on WPA: Ashton, p. 47. Two hundred serious artists: Josephson, p. 386; figure for 1932. One thousand signing up; six thousand employed: Ashton, p. 47; the figure is given as 5,500 in Josephson, p. 382. Screening procedures: State Final Report file, especially California, Connecticut, New York City, RG59/651.3115, cited in McKinzie, p. 86. Anyone with framed painting: Rosenberg. There were other ways to get on the project, including a recommendation from an art school, or proof of having been paid for art-related skills; see McKinzie, pp. 86–87.

  McMahon: Audrey McMahon, int. by Richard D. McKinzie, Mar. 31, 1970, cited in McKinzie, p. 77. Cahill: “The Reminiscences of Holger Cahill,” Columbia Oral History Collection, Columbia University, New York, cited in McKinzie, pp. 75, 78. “Two people”: Kadish. “I have changed”: SLM to Kadish, July 16, 1935. Stories later circulated that Roy had tried to change his name back to McCoy but found the procedure too expensive and that Sande had promised his dying father that he would adopt the family’s true name; ACM. But of all the Pollock brothers, Sande was the most pragmatic, and $23.86 a week was more than adequate compensation for a name that had been borrowed in the first place. The legal change didn’t come until 1942; ACM. Jackson joining mural division: OC&T IV, p. 219; FVOC, ”The Genesis of JP,” p. 63. Asked to assist Goodman: Mattox.