Jackson Pollock

by Steven Naifeh

  NOTES

  Bucks County house: Wilson; photo in possession of ACM. Bank foreclosures; Spartan accommodations; New York writers: Trauch. Painting on porch: Wilson. Kadish visiting: Kadish. Country range: Wilson. Drive to Erwinna; Williams’s store: Maddux. Canal barges; behavior of canalers; coal and grain: Trauch. Description of Revere: Maddux: The hotel, a frame building, burned down twenty-five to thirty years ago. Jackson driving; trips into New York: Wilson: They went to the city “every week or two weeks.” “You goddamn”: Q. by Wilson.

  Sande’s marriage date; hot, humid day: ACM. Sande insisting on black minister: ACM. Masochistic courtship: Del Pilar. Arloie’s search for minister: ACM. Sande apparently made little or no effort to assist Arloie in her search. He had already been in New York for two years, and he already had several black friends, including JP’s former classmate, Joe Delaney, and the Art Students League model, Tiger Ed Bates. Wedding: ACM. Wrought-iron bed: Hicks. Sande clearing section of closet: ACM. Arloie’s hair: Hicks. Sewing and cooking: ACM. Arloie a good cook: Hicks. Attracting visitors: ACM; Lehman. Three or four times a week; “too expensive”: ACM. Sketching trip: SLM to Samuel Wagstaff, Feb. 14, 1962.

  Frank’s marriage date: Apr. 2, 1935; MLP. “His brothers”: Rosenberg. Marriage thinkable now: Kamrowski. Goldstein bunking with Pollocks: Ashton, Yes, but …, p. 34. Cherry’s broken love: Cherry. Mitchell married: Lehman; Kadish. Schardts meeting: Schardt. Tolegian on prowl: Ruth Stone to MLP, Nov. 9, 1936. Tolegian talking marriage: Araks Tolegian. Tutelage of Ben-Shmuel: Grossman; Kaz. “He liked to humiliate”: Grossman. Party; “vacuuming up the wine”: EFP. “You are the ugliest”: Q. by EFP. “Scuffling”; “a girl’s”: EFP.

  Jackson no longer fabricating affairs: Busa; Lehman. “Sexually, Jackson”; “dating” unaffordable: Kamrowski. Dance-floor and barroom antics: Busa; Lehman. Jackson not dating: When a friend of Marie’s came to New York in late 1936 with an introduction to JP, she received a polite but unimpassioned reception: “When I arrived on the scene he was fast asleep on the couch. Upon being awakened he stared at me vaguely—mumbled—shook his head—almost fell asleep again—made a great effort and rambled on—something on this order—‘Sure—sure—I remember you, Ruthie! sure—Manual Arts—hate reminiscences—old school days—Let’s talk about school days—remember those pamphlets I distributed?’ … Then he suggested that when she returned to Los Angeles she look up his mother and fell back asleep. ‘Romantic—what?’” Ruth Stone to MLP, Nov. 9, 1936.

  Sylvia: Horn; Wilson. Arloie remembers the name as Shirley, but says “it could have been Sylvia.” Height and hair: Horn; Wilson; ACM: The hair was light brown and “kind of fuzzy.” Last name unknown; Jackson joining Schardt and Wilson; farmhouse: ACM. Near Frenchtown; five dollars a month: SLM to CCP, Oct. 29, 1936; Arloie says JP paid only five or ten dollars for the entire winter. Description of farmhouse; talk of staying the winter: ACM. Accident while drunk; “Jack had”; bill for eighty dollars: SLM to CCP, Oct. 29, 1936: JP had to pay for the other person’s damage, which indicates the accident was his fault. November return: ACM; Ruth Stone to MLP, Nov. 9, 1936. “Too cold”: Q. by ACM. Sylvia dropped: ACM.

  Nightly forays; turned away or thrown out; rounds of drinks: Kadish. Jackson given coffee; sudden violence: ACM. “I remember Sande”: Schardt. Tears: Wilson. Held by Sande: See ACM, q. in Potter, p. 53. Arloie’s professions of affection: ACM: “He was very sweet, and I remember him as a very loving, kind brother.” Dances: Held at the Artists Union loft on Sixteenth Street and Sixth Avenue; Mattox. Jackson’s belligerence and abuse; checking for periods: Busa: When JP later visited one of his classes at Cooper Union, he said, “Pete, at least six of your women here have periods.” Dance-floor behavior: Busa; Kadish. Christmas party: Busa. Jackson cutting in: Busa; Gruen, p. 230. “Do you like”: Q. by Friedman; see Gorchov, who, recalling Lee Krasner, describes the same incident: “This is all from Lee. This I got from Lee. She told me directly.” “Dog gets on your leg”: Busa. Jackson apologizing: Gorchov. “He started”: LK, q. by Gorchov.

  “Much heralded”: Ashton, Yes, but …, p. 31. Rivera’s “crudities”; Siqueiros’s “shitty” painting; “dominated”: Goldstein to Lehman, July 14, 1934, q. in Ashton, Yes, but …, p. 31. Christ panel in Dartmouth mural: Entitled Modern Migration of the Spirit. Sketching on the Vineyard: SLM to Samuel Wagstaff, Feb. 14, 1962. Experimenting with Orozco’s style: See especially the ceramic bowls, e.g., OC&T 920, IV, p. 6. Dating of Orozcoesque works: As with all JP’s early works, there is great confusion. O’Connor (in “The Genesis of JP”) concludes that they were generally done after 1938, citing (pp. 176–77) SLM to CCP, July 1941, in which Sande writes that JP had “thrown off the yoke of Benton completely and is doing work … related to that of men like Beckman [sic], Orozco and Picasso” and (p. 177 n. 1) a remark by Motherwell that in the winter of 1941–42, Pollock was moving from Orozco to Picasso.

  Yet Sande dated a sequence of similarly Orozcoesque drawings c. 1937; OC&T 482–85, III, pp. 70–71. Moreover, Bryan Robertson—presumably with Lee Krasner’s advice—dated a related drawing c. 1934; OC&T 486, III, p. 72. O’Connor himself dates the related drawings c. 1933–39; OC&T 479–86, III, pp. 68–72. He dates some of the Orozcoesque paintings c. 1934–38 (OC&T 31–56 I, pp. 27–41) and others 1938–41 (OC&T 57–62, I, pp. 44–49) even though one of the latter (OC&T 58, I, p. 45) was inscribed “Jackson Pollock 1937” by an unknown hand on a photo taken of it by Lehman about 1941–42.

  We believe JP’s primary Orozcoesque period began during the middle thirties and lasted through his stay at White Plains, as indicated by the bowls, which have an Orozcoesque quality, and by the reference to Thomas Dillon, a fellow patient at that hospital, on one page of a sketchbook (OC&T 478, III, p. 67). We think JP turned away from Orozco toward Picasso and primitive art about 1939, primarily as a result of his exposure to Guernica in 1939 and to the exhibition “Picasso: Forty Years of His Art,” held that year at MOMA; of Henderson’s characterization of native American art as spiritually valuable; and of the lessons of John Graham (see chapter 23, “Intimations of Immortality”).

  O’Connor (pp. 177–78) notes JP’s early exposure to Orozco, beginning in 1930, and allows that JP could have seen the Dartmouth murals (although he had “no evidence that he saw them in the original”) but chooses to emphasize instead the general resurgence of interest in Orozco among New Yorkers in 1939. He quotes (p. 179) SLM to CCP, Jan.–Feb. 1939, noting that Sande “saw some photos of Orozco’s Guadalajara frescoes. Christ what a brutal, powerful piece of painting. I think it would be safe to say that he is the only really vital living painter. …” O’Connor (“The Genesis of JP” pp. 179–80) also cites an Orozco exhibition at the Hudson D. Walker Galleries in the fall of 1939 and a fresco, Tank and Dive Bomber, painted by Orozco in 1940 in full public view at MOMA, then argues that these two events accounted for JP’s own resurgence of interest in the Mexican painter.

  Aside from the early trips to Pomona, and JP’s early and repeated references to the Orozco fresco as the greatest painting in America, it is now known that JP did go to Dartmouth to see the murals in 1936; Wilson. It is also known that Guston arrived in New York in 1935 from a trip to Mexico bringing with him a very considerable enthusiasm for Orozco, and touting Orozco’s fresco in Buenos Aires. As for Motherwell’s comments, his association with JP was too late and too superficial to contradict the testimony of more knowledgeable sources such as Busa. As for Sande’s letter to Charles, it seems likely that he was noting primarily that, as late as 1941, JP had finally and “completely” [our emphasis] left Benton behind. We don’t think Sande meant to imply that JP was responding to additional artists—Beckmann, Orozco, and Picasso—for the first time; otherwise, why would he have given JP’s Orozcoesque drawings a date of 1937?

  Skeletal beasts: OC&T 467–68, III, p. 62; 470, III, p. 63; 473, III, p. 65; 482, III, p. 70; 484, III, p. 71. Pregnant women: OC&T 460, III, p. 58; 462, III, p. 59; 470–71, III, pp. 63–64; 475–76,
III, p. 66. Skeletal animals in wombs: OC&T 473, III, p. 65; 483 III, p. 70. Crosses: OC&T 475–77, III, pp. 66–67; see also OC&T 50, I, pp. 36–37. Chains: OC&T 476, III, p. 66; 481, III, p. 69. Skulls: OC&T 483, III, p. 71. Flayed skin: OC&T 467–68, III, p. 62; 470, III, p. 63; 475, III, p. 66; 484, III, p. 71; 486, III, p. 72. Infants nailed to cross: OC&T 475, III, p. 66; 477, III, p. 67. Infants chained to cross: OC&T 476, III, p. 66. Infant carcasses: OC&T 477, p. 67. Academicians and kneeling figure: OC&T 49, I, pp. 36–37. Nightmare tableau: OC&T 59, I, p. 46.

  Portraits of Stella: See especially OC&T 59, I, p. 46. Faceless females: OC&T 59, I, p. 46; 475–76, III, p. 66. Horses: OC&T 51–53, I, pp. 38–39; 55, I, p. 40. Horse skeletons: OC&T 482–83, III, p. 70. Horse humans: OC&T 59, I, p. 46; 61, I, p. 49. Horse birds: OC&T 468, III, p. 62; 477, III, p. 67. Horse bulls: OC&T 467, III, p. 62.

  Project pictures: The early paintings that JP kept for himself—such as the Ryderesque Seascape, dated 1934 (OC&T 30, I, p. 25), or gave to friends, mainly the Bentons, such as Going West with its cowboy subject and Ryderesque style (OC&T 16, I, p. 16)—are his more innovative and risky works: comparatively abstract and dreamy in content, thickly painted, extremely somber, and very strong, especially for this early date. The paintings that JP painted for the WPA allotment, on the other hand, tend to be clearly representational, thinly painted, lackluster in style, banal in subject matter: a horse grazing in a field (OC&T 17, I, p. 17), a farmer plowing a field (OC&T 15, I, p. 15), women picking cotton (OC&T 12, I, pp. 12–13), simple landscapes (OC&T 22, I, p. 20) and seascapes (OC&T 25, I, p. 23). The same is true of the feathery landscapes that JP apparently made while in Kansas City (OC&T 18–21, I, pp. 18–19), which were clearly done for sale to earn traveling money; see letter from THB to FVOC, describing the sale of one painting to Frank Paxton, q. in OC&T I, p. 19. The painting from this series that JP gave the Bentons, Red Barn, was probably a leftover.

  For all his disapproval of “phoniness,” JP was apparently willing, when essential, to paint on demand. This must have been torture for him, however, and may help explain his running battle with the WPA (see JP to CCP, [Thursday], in which JP noted that the WPA had rejected a painting because “they didn’t like the form in the water,” adding that he didn’t mind because it hadn’t been “a good picture” anyway).

  Turkey and recording; “not having much”: JP to CCP, “Thursday.” OC&T IV, p. 221: The painting may be OC&T 14, I, pp. 14–15. “Whose scatalogical”: Horn, “JP,” p. 87. Jackson lunging at Siqueiros: Horn. “Horsed around”: Kadish. “He was killing”: Horn, “JP,” p. 87. “With a deft”: Horn. Taking Jackson home: Horn, “JP,” p. 87. Sande refusing Stella: SLM to CCP, Oct. 29, 1936. Confusion over government commitment: Monroe, “Artists as Militant Trade Union Workers,” p. 8. “Would be fatal”: SLM, q. by CCP. “A succession”; “mentally sick”; “as you know”; “help [Jackson]”: SLM to CCP, July 27, 1937. Cary Baynes: Henderson. Sande impressed by credentials: SLM to CCP, July 27, 1937.

  Rita’s party: Kadish. Hicks recalls that she met JP first, not at 46 East Eighth, but at a party given by a friend, Nancy Knight, at her “little studio down on Eighteenth Street.” Municipal Art Galleries exhibition: Marchal E. Landgren, “A Memoir of the New York City Municipal Art Galleries, 1936–1939,” in FVOC, ed., p. 286: The following artists were included in the exhibition: JP, Philip Goldstein, George R. Cox, Millicent Cox, Bertram Goodman, Lehman, Guy Maccoy, SLM, Genoi Grace Pettit, Bernard Schardt, J. B. Steffen, Manuel Tolegian, and Wilson. “Slim and pretty”; Becky’s brown hair: ACM. Sitting near window: Kadish. Banjo: Hicks; Kadish says she played the guitar, but it was in fact the banjo. “A lovely girl”: ACM.

  Becky Tarwater’s background; “the theater bug”: Hicks. Meeting Charles: CCP. Introduced to Steffen: ACM. Hicks says it wasn’t Steffen who made the introduction, but rather Nancy Knight. Arloie’s memory seems more secure on this point. Jackson drinking at party: Hicks; Kadish. “Jack, I don’t”: Hicks. The Allerton is at Lexington and Fifty-seventh Street. “All I’m able”: JP to CCP, Jan. 30, 1937. Dinners on Eighth Street; “a tortured”; never shown paintings or museums: Hicks. Never introduced to friends: Lehman; Wilson. Kadish: He met her once or twice at parties. Telephone calls; conversation; No visits to Naughty Naught; Mason Hicks: Hicks. Mason lived in Tudor City at the time. Jackson could be charming; “a great big”; kisses: Hicks. “Slight improvement”: SLM to CCP, July 27, 1937. Charles’s move to Detroit: Chronology prepared by CCP for EFP, Feb. 1975; see also FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 65. “Without giving”: SLM to CCP, July 27, 1937. Meeting at White Castle Restaurant: Hicks; Arloie remembers it as being on Sixth Avenue. Good-bye; gardenia; proposal; refusal: Hicks: “What he needed was a mother, not a wife.”

  “Went berserk”: Q. in Potter, p. 48. Weeklong binge: Araks Tolegian, recalling Manuel. Sande and Arloie in country: ACM. Visits from Kadish: Kadish. Mid-July: Wilson: JP went to Bucks County before, not after, the trip to Martha’s Vineyard; he was in the Vineyard by July 21. Stay brief and uneasy: Wilson.

  Boat trip: Benton. Description of boat trip: Burroughs, p. 5. Furtive letter: Hicks; JP to Becky Tarwater, Aug. 21, 1937. Date of Vineyard incident: Dockets Nos. 6414 and 6415, District Court 35, Dukes County, Mass. Oak Bluffs: See Mayhew, ed., pp. 99–113. Arrival unexpected; no one to welcome him: Artist, p. 335. Sending message to Rita: THB to FVOC, Apr. 4, 1964, q. in FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 67. Buying gin as present: Artist, p. 335. “Opened the bottle”: THB to FVOC, Apr. 4, 1964, q. in FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 67. Stutz: Benton. Rita trying to fetch Jackson; second call: Artist, p. 335. Getting to Chilmark on own: THB to FVOC, Apr. 4, 1964, q. in FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 67. Renting bicycle: Artist, pp. 335–36. “Take hold”: THB to FVOC, Apr. 4, 1964, q. in FVOC, ”The Genesis of JP,” p. 67. Seeing girls; “he promptly”: Artist, p. 336.

  “When [Tom] heard”: Burroughs, p. 117. Falling and gashing face: Artist, p. 336. Arrested: Dockets Nos. 6414 and 6415, District Court 35, Dukes County, Mass. JP was not arrested for “disorderly conduct” as reported in Artist, p. 335; Burroughs, p. 117; and Potter, p. 55. Pleading guilty: Dockets Nos. 6414 and 6415, District Court 35, Dukes County, Mass. Unable to pay fine; empty jail: THB to FVOC, Apr. 4, 1964, q. in FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 68. Potter (p. 55) claims that JP was held in an outhouse with a locked chain around it because a cell was not available, but Edgartown did have a jail (with indoor plumbing) and, according to Benton, JP was the only one in it. Sheriff calling Chilmark: Burroughs, p. 117. Night in jail: THB to FVOC, q. in FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 68: “The jailer fed him, after he sobered up, and finding Jack a good boy took him to the movies after supper.” “A matter of fun”: THB to FVOC, Mar. 31, 1964.

  Vineyard activities: Burroughs, p. 10. Walks to Atlantic: Burroughs, p. 11; JP to Becky Tarwater, Aug. 21, 1937. Oval picture: going to the pond: OC&T 28, I, p. 24. Gift to Tom’s nephew: OC&T I, p. 24. Letter from Becky: Hicks. “Darling Becky”: JP to Becky Tarwater, Aug. 21, 1937, in possession of Hicks. Sande and Arloie return: About the same time that Sande and Arloie returned from Bucks County, Charles scolded JP for neglecting their mother: “Whatever other responsibilities we may or may not have, we certainly owe Mother the courtesy of regular letters. … good intentions are not enough. … [T]his is a serious matter Jack and I hope you will take it seriously”; CCP to JP, Sept. 13, 1937.

  “Wet nurse”: EFP. Violence: Kadish. Fistfights: Kadish; Wahl. “Filthy”; sleeping in gutter; refused service in bars: Kadish. Found passed out by strangers: Ribak. Bowery stray: Kadish. “Worried”: SLM to CCP, Feb. 1938, referring to “the first part of the winter.” Tablecloth shredded: Solomon, p. 85. No children while living with Jackson: ACM. Periods of withdrawal; “horrendous feelings”: Kadish. Head in hands; never painting just after binges: ACM: “I never saw him paint during those periods.” Going to kitchen; good periods: Kadish. “Calm sea”: Busa. Federal Art Gallery: 225 West Fifty-seventh Street; OC&T IV, p. 223.

  Visit
from Benton: SLM to CCP, Dec. 13, 1937, cited in FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 68. Tolegian and Sande pulling out; Jackson leaving for Kansas City: SLM to CCP, Dec. 21, 1937. Valentine Road house: McKim. Benton harder and cooler: Cecil Carstensen. Upheaval at art institute: Benton. “He wouldn’t be”: Blanche Carstensen. Two-week stay: SLM to CCP, Dec. 21, 1937; JP to CCP, Jan. 6, 1938. T. P. unable to recall trip: Benton. Four landscapes: OC&T 18, I, p. 18; OC&T 20–21, I, p. 19. One was given to the WPA but appears stylistically to have been painted in Kansas City. Sold to friends: One (OC&T 21, I, p. 19) was sold to Frank Paxton; THB to James T. Vallière, July 13, 1964.

  Round of parties: Lawrence Adams to FVOC, Aug. 11, 1964, q. in FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 68. “Stag affairs”: Cecil Carstensen. “There was considerable”; “feats”; “the usual”: Lawrence Adams to FVOC, Aug. 11, 1964, q. in FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 68. THB to FVOC, Mar. 31, 1964: “He could be a little wild when he went out on the town, but there was so much wildness in [Democratic party boss] Tom Pendergast’s Kansas City at the time that the wildness of an undeveloped genius was not even noticible.” King’s Beach: Benton. Confrontation with Rita: Wheeler, recalling Morris Kantor. “She was his ideal”: Artist, p. 241: Rita apparently told Benton something about this event, although probably not all; Benton here implies that he had heard similar professions of love. Proposing to Rita: Wheeler, recalling Morris Kantor.

  “She turned him down”: Wheeler. So visible was JP’s infatuation for Rita that, when viewed against the limitations of the Bentons’ marriage, it generated outrageous rumors not only of a torrid affair but even of an illegitimate child; Burroughs. “After [Rita] turned him down”: Morris Kantor, q. by Wheeler. Kansas City binge; “so sick”; taken to doctor; “disease”: THB to FVOC, Mar. 31, 1964: “We had had some amusing experiences with Jack when he got high but never thought of them as reflective of a serious condition.” “The doctor told me”: THB to FVOC, Mar. 31, 1964.