Jackson Pollock

by Steven Naifeh

  Jackson suggested; “he had been painting”: Motherwell, q. in Simon, “Motherwell,” p. 22. “Attack on the material”: Motherwell, q. in Potter, p. 71. Jackson tearing paper: Motherwell, to FVOC, Feb. 14, 1964, q. in FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 211. Spitting on paper: Motherwell, q. in Simon, “Motherwell,” p. 22. Burning edges with: Motherwell to FVOC, Feb. 14, 1964, q. in FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 211. “Generally, he worked”: Q. in Simon, “Motherwell,” p. 22. “I can still remember”: Q. in Diamonstein, ed., Inside New York’s Art World, p. 248. Jackson’s T-shirt: Motherwell to FVOC, Feb. 19, 1964, q. in FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 79. “Left-handed”; “Marlon Brando”; “Brando was more controlled”: Motherwell, q. in Potter, p. 70.

  28. EXCITING AS ALL HELL

  SOURCES

  Books, articles, manuscripts, and transcript

  Ernst, A Not-So-Still Life; Friedman, JP; PG, ed., Art of This Century; PG, Out of This Century; Lane and Larsen, eds., Abstract Painting and Sculpture in America; Levy, Memoir of an Art Gallery; Lomask, Seed Money; Lukach, Hilla Rebay; McKinzie, The New Deal for Artists; Myers, Tracking the Marvelous; Nemser, Art Talk; FVOC, ed., The New Deal Art Projects; OC&T, JP; Potter, To a Violent Grave; Solomon, JP; Weld, Peggy.

  Robert M. Coates, review, New Yorker, May 29, 1943; Jean Connolly, “Art,” Nation, May 29, 1943; Josephine Gibbs, “End of the Project,” clipping in Time/Life file; Grace Glueck, “Krasner and Pollock: Scenes from a Marriage,” Art News, Dec. 1981; PG, “PG Replies,” Art Digest, June 1943; “Isms Rampant: PG’s Dream World Goes Abstract, Cubist, and Generally Non-Real,” Newsweek, Nov. 2, 1942; [B]elle [K]rasne, “Fifty-Seventh Street in Review: Fritz Glarner,” Art Digest, Feb. 15, 1951; Elizabeth Langhorne, “JP’s ‘The Moon Woman Cuts the Circle,’” Arts, Mar. 1979; Klaus Mann, “Surrealist Circus,” American Mercury, Feb. 1943; William Rubin, “Pollock as Jungian Illustrator: The Limits of Psychological Criticism, Part I,” Art in America, Nov. 1979; “Surrealists in Exile,” Time, Apr. 20, 1942; Francis Henry Taylor, “National Art Week and the Museum,” Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nov. 1940.

  Susan Heller Anderson, “For PG, A Lifetime of Knowing Her Own Mind,” NYT, Apr. 17, 1979; Grace Glueck, “Art People: Dublin Climate Travels, Too,” NYT, Oct. 14, 1977; Henry McBride, “New Gallery Ideas,” New York Sun, Oct. 23, 1942; Israel Shenker, “PG Is Dead at 81; Known for Modern Art Collection,” NYT, Dec. 24, 1979.

  Melvin Paul Lader, “PG’s Art of This Century: The Surrealist Milieu and the American Avant-Garde, 1942–1947” (Lader) (Ph.D. thesis), Newark: University of Delaware, 1981; Ellen Landau, “LK: A Study of Her Early Career (1926–1949)” (Ph.D. thesis), Newark: University of Delaware, 1981; FVOC, “The Genesis of JP: 1912 to 1943 (Ph.D. thesis), Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University, 1965.

  LK, int. by Dorothy Seckler, Nov. 2, 1968, AAA.

  Interviews

  Lionel Abel; Ethel Baziotes; Leland Bell; Fritz Bultman; Peter Busa; Jimmy Ernst; CG; Richard Howard; Buffie Johnson; Reuben Kadish; Gerome Kamrowski; LK; Harry Holtzman; Harold Lehman; Herbert Matter; Alfonso Ossorio; David Porter; Lucia Salemme; Hedda Sterne; Michael Stolbach; James Johnson Sweeney; Steve Wheeler; Roger Wilcox.

  NOTES

  Perfunctory drawings: OC&T 643–64, III, pp. 174–86. Last three months of 1942: SMP to CCP, Feb. 10, 1944. Stenographic Figure: Rubin (“Pollock as Jungian Illustrator, Part I,” p. 116) argues that there is only one figure in the painting, an interpretation with which both Lee Krasner and Eugene Thaw “agreed” (p. 123 n. 56). However, JP typically favored the subject of two figures seated across a table from one another, and the image clearly supports such a reading—the title notwithstanding. Stella’s visits: SMP to CCP, Feb. 10, 1944. “Arbitrary”; “numbers”: Busa.

  Holding a flower: Langhorne, “JP’s ‘The Moon Woman Cuts the Circle,’” p. 133: The shape is a yellow flower, as in The Secret of the Golden Flower, a book translated by Helen Marot’s friend, Cary Baynes. This was the primary book of the Tao, a “conscious way to unite what is separated. Its symbol is the Golden Flower. … the flower in Pollock’s painting dramatizes that consciousness for which the moon woman so intently strives.” While it is difficult to attribute any specific symbolic meaning to JP’s use of the motif, Langhorne may well be correct in identifying the shape as the Golden Flower. Ejaculation in Male and Female: This is arguably the first painting in which JP made significant use of poured and spattered paint.

  “An honorable discharge”: Landau, “LK,” p. 174, citing FVOC, The New Deal and Now, 2d edition, (Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society, 1971), p. 27. Canvases auctioned: Gibbs, “End of the Project,” p. 7. Murals covered: McKinzie, p. 125. Murals destroyed: McKinzie (p. 165) gives an account of panels in Flatbush to which the Flatbush Chamber of Commerce and the American Legion objected; those panels were burned. “Went home”: McKinzie, p. 125. Jackson’s paintings included: Man, Bull, Bird, OC&T 57, I, p. 44; Glueck, “Art People: Dublin Climate Travels, Too.” “Pipe heat”: Glueck, “Art People: Dublin Climate Travels, Too” Jackson reclaiming works: Lehman. Prices for WPA works: McKinzie, p. 124.

  Posters for navy: See Landau, “LK,” pp. 173–74. Sheetmetal training job: On October 14, 1942, JP was reassigned as a “vocational trainee in aviation sheet metal” at the WPA Project Service Trade Center in Brooklyn at a salary of $52.80 a month. He was there only eight days before he was reassigned to the Art Program on October 21. Lee’s team: Landau, “LK,” p. 174, citing Busa, int. by Landau, Oct. 13, 1979. “The most unregimented”; “The question”; training programs: Busa. Lee’s salary: SMP to CCP, Feb. 10, 1943. Mechanical drafting course: Landau, “LK,” p. 212, citing documents in Lee’s personal files and WPA Vocational Training record card. Busa: The teacher was Henry Dolle. “Hunks of machinery”: Int. by Landau, Oct. 30, 1978, and Nov. 3, 1978, q. in Landau, “LK,” p. 212. Lettering to copy: Busa.

  Jackson assigned to course in Brooklyn: FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 82. “To take a course”: SMP to CCP, Feb. 10, 1944. Liberating canvas: Howard, recalling LK: “He had gone in, stolen a lot of canvas, wrapped it around his leg, and come home. Lee said, ‘Jackson, what’s the matter with you?’ And he said, ‘Just wait a minute,’ then unbuckled his pants and took out the canvas.” Shoplifting paint: Solomon, pp. 127–28. “Dead broke”: JP, q. in Myers, p. 81.

  Silk-screening job: LK, int. by Seckler, Nov. 2, 1968; Ralph Rosenborg, int. by FVOC, Nov. 10, 1964, q. in FVOC, “The Genesis of JP,” p. 82; LK to FVOC, Sept. 10, 1966 (prepared by James T. Vallière); Friedman, p. 55. “Squeegee man”; Creative Printmakers: Solomon, p. 128. Sweatshop: Busa. “That was the end”: LK, int. by Seckler, Nov. 2, 1968. Jackson not wanting Lee to work: Glueck, “Krasner and Pollock,” p. 60. “Other artists”; “Jackson was totally”: LK, q. in Glueck, “Krasner and Pollock,” p. 60: The others identified by Lee were Tony Smith, Barnett Newman, and Adolph Gottlieb. Only 150 artists making living: Taylor, “National Art Week and the Museum,” pp. 3–4. Gypsy Rose Lee; “She wouldn’t look”: Bultman; see also Weld, p. 255.

  “Filled with torments”: PG, p. 7. “Those stupid”: PG, q. in Weld, p. 33. Guggenheim leaving for Paris: Weld, p. 45; she left in 1920, at age twenty-two. Appearance: See Weld, p. 46. Cigarette holder: PG, p. 42. “The place was crowded”: Levy, p. 34. “Was more French”: Weld, p. 49. “The King of Bohemia”: Q. in Weld, p. 51. Attack on chandelier: Weld, p. 56. Relationship with Clotilde: Weld, p. 55. Vail later became overtly incestuous with his daughters, especially Apple; Weld, pp. 229, 313. “Thrilled her”: Weld, p. 75. “He talked”; Holms’s drinking: PG, p. 70: “His capacity for drink was greater than anyone’s I have ever known. He drank about five drinks to other people’s one.” “Everyone I love”: Q. in Weld, p. 98.

  Peggy turning to art: Laurence Vail, in particular, had “recommended that as Peggy had no brains and no talent, she should give her money away to writers, poets, and artists who did”; Weld, p. 70; see also Lader, p. 16. Preference for old masters: Lader, p. 22. �
��Carried with it”: Weld, p. 108. Guggenheim Jeune: Weld, p. 131. “Tanguy really loved”: PG, p. 157. “Extremely uncomfortable”: PG, p. 160. Penrose, q. in Weld, p. 172: “[The affair] was never very serious. How could it be serious when she went to bed with everyone she met? She was very much in heat, one might say, anyone could jump into bed with her.” “Childish”: PG, p. 141. Although she claimed (p. 141) that “[Beckett] was in love with me as well,” the evidence is to the contrary; see Weld, p. 162. Beckett: Sindbad, Peggy’s son by Laurence Vail, doubted that there was a relationship; Weld, p. 162.

  Financial losses: Lader, p. 31. “I felt”: PG, p. 164. Enlisting help: Lader, pp. 31–35. Buying a picture a day: Her motto was “Buy a picture a day”; Shenker, “PG Is Dead at 81.” Wealth exaggerated: Porter. Because her father had lost much of his inheritance in the years before his death, she was what she called a “poor” Guggenheim (PG, p. 12); “from that time on I had a complex about no longer being a real Guggenheim. I felt like a poor relative and suffered great humiliation thinking how inferior I was to the rest of the family.” Her inheritance from her father was “close to $450,000”; Weld, p. 31. She later inherited an additional $500,000, more or less, from her mother; Weld, p. 114. Porter: Her income during the early 1940s was $40,000 a year. Buying strategy: Shenker, “PG Is Dead at 81.” Generosity: Mary McCarthy, q. in Weld, p. 70: She exhibited a “neat, precise generosity.”

  “They decided”: Q. in Shenker, “PG Is Dead at 81.” Favorite sister: Weld, p. 21: Benita was “the love of Peggy’s childhood.” Vowing never to return: “As a result of Benita’s death I decided never again to go to America”; PG, p. 65. “Household goods”: Weld, p. 211. Last stand in Marseilles: Lader, pp. 46–47; Weld, p. 214. “Exquisitely-made”; “he had”; “and a handsome”: PG, p. 180. “I did not like”: PG, p. 220.

  Cork Street and Boulevard Montparnasse: Peggy frequented the bars along Boulevard Montparnasse while in Paris, where she lived mostly in hotels, and Guggenheim Jeune was on Cork Street in London. Eye shadow: Lehman. Description of Guggenheim: Weld, p. 255. French talk of American food: Rupert Barneby, q. in Weld, p. 255. “Mephistophelean”: Johnson, q. in Weld, p. 253. “Surrealism’s headquarters”; “financial angel”; “she practically”: “Surrealists in exile,” p. 50.

  Kiesler: See Weld, p. 266. Views banished: Lader, p. 116. Materials: Weld, p. 286. “Break down the physical”: Kiesler, q. in Weld, p. 285, citing Kiesler, “Design Correlation,” p. 76. “As thorough a sample”: Weld, pp. 266–67. Read and van Doesborg’s list; work by Ferren: Weld, p. 267: Weld generously characterizes her interest in American art at this time as “cautious.” “Great physico-mental”: André Breton, “Genesis and Perspective of Surrealism,” in PG, ed., p. 26. Pictures of eyes: Weld, p. 267. Gallery name: Peggy chose it because she liked it, not because the Baroness Hilla Rebay, director of her uncle Solomon’s museum (four blocks away), was determined to prevent her from debasing the family name; see Ernst, pp. 224–25; Weld, p. 265.

  “Drove people crazy”: Weld, p. 288. Opening night crowd; description of gallery: Weld, p. 290. “Surrealist Circus!”: Mann, “Surrealist Circus!” p. 174. “Isms Rampant”: “Isms Rampant,” p. 66. “A sort of blend”: “Art That’s Modern and Mysterious,” New York Journal American, clipping in the PG Papers, q. in Lader, p. 129. “My eyes”: McBride, “New Gallery Ideas.” “She made a big”: Q. in Weld, p. 290. “Research laboratory”; “serve the future”: “PG to Open Art Gallery—Art of This Century,” press release, Oct. 1942, in Exhibition Catalogues Collection, AAA, q. in Lader, p. 126. Earrings by Calder and Tanguy: To show her impartiality toward abstraction and Surrealism.

  Philandering father: Weld, p. 23. “Dizzy” mother: Weld, p. 18. Nannies: Weld, p. 20: They followed a regimen of cold baths, rigid sleeping positions, and plenty of discipline. “I once had a nurse who threatened to cut out my tongue if I dared to repeat the foul things she said to me”; PG, p. 7. Dispute over advertisement in VVV: Lader, pp. 204–05. “Had sacrificed”: PG, p. 235. “Mesquin”: Q. in PG, p. 235. VVV cover show canceled: Lader, p. 200. Replacement show: “15 Early 15 Late Paintings,” by Braque, Chagall, Dali, de Chirico, Duchamp, Ernst, Gris, Kandinsky, Klee, Léger, Masson, Miró, Mondrian, Picasso, and Tanguy; Weld, p. 300. Ernst in Amagansett: Wilcox: Lucia Wilcox helped pay the rent. Attempted seduction of Duchamp: See Weld, pp. 278–79. Joke about Tanning: Weld, p. 294. “Parlor anarchists”: Mann, “Surrealist Circus,” p. 174. “I am not”: PG, “PG Replies,” p. 4.

  Sweeney promoted to adviser: Weld, p. 300. “Whipping boy”: Weld, p. 331. Matta sole “European”: Lader, pp. 205–06. Seeking out American Surrealists: Lader, p. 194; e.g., Cornell, who was represented in the gallery’s first temporary exhibition in December 1942; Lader, p. 193. Lader, p. 205: Peggy’s “separation from Ernst had other, more far-reaching implications for the history of American art. The timing of this personal tragedy coincided exactly with her shift in allegiance away from the Surrealists to a group of younger, relatively unknown American artists.”

  “Shocking”: Q. in Weld, p. 305. Description of Putzel: Myers; Lader, p. 145; Weld, p. 332. Eye for quality: Betty Parsons, q. in Weld, p. 330. Cigarette holder and glasses: Charles Seliger, int. by Weld, Mar. 31, 1979, q. in Weld, p. 331. Weakness for martinis: Weld, p. 331. “He paid twenty”: Levy, q. in Weld, p. 331. “An insane”: Weld, p. 331. “She treated him”: Q. in Weld, p. 331.

  Putzel’s background: Weld, p. 194. Hollywood gallery: Lader, pp. 146–49. “Movie people”: Charles Seliger, int. by Weld, Mar. 31, 1979, q. in Weld, p. 194. Letter to Onslow-Ford: Q. in Lader, p. 166, citing Onslow-Ford to Hermine Benhaim: The letter arrived around Christmas time. Ronnie Rose Elliott, an artist who was exhibiting at an adjacent gallery, recalled (int. by Lader, Feb. 11, 1976, q. in Lader, p. 166) Putzel inviting her up to see Jackson’s work: “I want to show you someone whom I think is a very great artist. I found him, and we’re going to exhibit him. To me, he’s one of the best … This is going to be the major artist in this country.” “Artists for victory”: Dec. 7, 1941–Feb. 23, 1943. Baziotes “approved”: PG, int. by Lader, Apr. 3, 1978, q. in Lader, p. 260.

  Collage show: Apr. 16–May 15, 1943. Collage from Gypsy Rose Lee: Weld; p. 301. Connolly a close friend: See Lader, p. 210. Rumors that Peggy “edited” entries: Busa. Wheeler: “She put those that she wanted Sweeney to look at in one pile and those that she didn’t even want Sweeney to see in another pile.” Voting system: See Lader, pp. 210–11.

  “Dreadful”: Q. by Ernst. Ironically, PG (q. in Anderson, “For PG”) later claimed, “Pollock was easily accepted by me. His art was so overwhelming and wonderful I loved it right away.” Guggenheim sure Pollock wouldn’t make cut: Weld, p. 305. Mondrian wanting time: Weld, p. 304. Mondrian walking around: Ernst, p. 241. “Rooted”: Ernst, p. 241. “Pretty awful”; “that’s not painting”; “absolutely no discipline”: Q. in Ernst, p. 241; also q. in Weld, p. 305. “I’m not so sure”: Q. by Ernst in Potter, p. 72. “You must watch”: Q. by Krasner, q. in Weld, p. 305. “You can’t be serious”; “The way I paint”: Q. by Ernst, q. in Weld, p. 305.

  “Look what”: Q. by Ernst. “Pollock was easily”: Q. in Anderson, “For PG.” “She was willing”: Q. in Weld, p. 305. “Mondrian’s nod”: LK. Reason for Mondrian accepting jury duty; Holtzman and Mondrian: Holtzman. “I would be dead”: Q. by Holtzman. “Master”: Glarner, q. in [B]elle [K]rasne, “Fifty-Seventh Street in Review,” p. 20. Holtzman’s sculpture: Holtzman: The work is now in the Yale art gallery in the Société Anonyme collection. “Everybody assumes”: Q. in Ernst, p. 242: According to Ernst’s account, Mondrian went on at some length in the same vein: “Just because it points in the opposite direction of my paintings … my writings … is no reason to declare it invalid. … I don’t know enough about this painter to think of him as ‘great.’ But I do know that I was forced to stop and look. Where you see ‘lack of discipline,’ I get an impression of tremendous energy. It will have to go somewhere, to be sure.” Jury “respec
ting” both Holtzman and Pollock: Holtzman; see also Lader, p. 378. “For once the future”: Connolly, “Art,” p. 643. “Those twin branches”: Coates, p. 49. “Things really broke”: JP to CCP, July 29, 1943. Jackson hearing about Mondrian: Kadish. Sales from Spring Salon: Lader, p. 211. Job at museum: Kamrowski: Fabean and De Niro got him the job. “He would make pastiches”: Bell. “Cosmic”; “Nicht cosmic”: Q. by Bell. Ingratiating note: Lukach, p. 155: “Others who worked at the museum at the same time recall a certain fractiousness on Pollock’s part, but his letters to Rebay are prefectly courteous.” “I have been”: JP to Hilla Rebay, Apr. 15, 1943, q. in Lukach, pp. 154–55; see fig. 50, following p. 240. Another obsequious letter: “May I take this moment to thank you for our interview on April 30, in regards to a possible job opening at the Museum of Nonobjective art. And again may I stress the value received from your criticism of my work and for the material check received. Knowing you will find my services most dependable and trustworthy”; JP to Hilla Rebay, May 1, 1943, q. in Lukach, p. 155. “Custodian”: Lukach, p. 155. There is no evidence to support Potter’s claim (p. 72) that John Graham had any role in securing the job for JP, despite his earlier association with Rebay. Began work: Lukach, p. 155.

  Guggenheim’s improbable mistress: Rosalind Bengelsdorf Browne, q. in FVOC, ed., p. 230: ”The Baroness was then curator of Mr. Guggenheim’s collection, and, let it be said, probably of Mr. Guggenheim.” The baroness ungratefully pooh-poohed the widespread talk that she was Guggenheim’s mistress: “Why, when I knew him first, he was an old man; old enough to be my father, and this he was exactly to the end”; q. in Lomask, p. 175. “Bubbles Bauer”: Salemme. Converted showroom: Bell. “About two visitors”: Salemme. Modern Screen Romance: Bell. “Very well dressed”: Salemme. Spitting orders: Bell: “If you stood too close, you got a shower.” Description of Bauer: Bell. “Execrable”: Myers, p. 81. “Baronial splendor”: Ernst, pp. 224–25. In a bizarre turn, the previous year, Bauer had rewarded the baroness for her largesse by falling in love with his housekeeper, which understandably infuriated the baroness, who accused the new Mrs. Bauer of being a “streetwalker and a spy.” This resulted in a crossfire of libel suits and then a visit to Rebay by the FBI (instigated, no doubt, by the Bauers), who proceeded to lock up the baroness on the suspicion that she was a spy. The faithful Solomon arranged her release and the faithful baroness soon forgave her beloved Bauer; Weld, p. 110.