Jackson Pollock

by Steven Naifeh

  Bruno Alfieri, “A Short Talk on the Pictures of JP,” L’Arte Moderna, unpub. English typescript, MOMA files.

  Alfonso Ossorio, int. by Forrest Selvig, Nov. 19, 1968, AAA; Alfonso Ossorio, int. by Kathleen Shorthall for Life, Nov. 9, 1959, Time/Life Archives.

  Interviews

  Lionel Abel; Peter Blake; Charlotte Park Brooks; James Brooks; Fritz Bultman; Nicholas Carone; Leo Castelli; Giorgio Cavallon; Tibor de Nagy; Dorothy Dehner; Ted Dragon; Leslie Fiedler; B. H. Friedman; Joe Glasco; Hester Grimm Patrick; Eleanor Hempstead; Rebecca Hicks; Budd Hopkins; Ettabelle Storm Horgan; Merle Hubbard; Harry Jackson; Buffie Johnson; Reuben Kadish; Lillian Olaney Kiesler; Hilton Kramer; LK; John Little; Cile Downs Lord; ACM; George Mercer; John Bernard Myers; Alfonso Ossorio; Vita Peterson; CCP; FLP; MJP; Charles Porter; Milton Resnick; May Tabak Rosenberg; Dorothy Seiberling; Eloise Spaeth; Ronald Stein; Hedda Sterne; Esteban Vicente; Harriet Vicente; Marta Vivas; Catherine Viviano; Roger Wilcox; Betsy Zogbaum.

  NOTES

  Life offices and the Pollock article; “deeply conservative”; “very enthusiastic”: Seiberling. Number 12, 1948: OC&T 200, II, pp. 20–21. Not long afterward: Seiberling says late spring 1949. “Maybe we should”: Q. by Seiberling. Jack Jessup: Actual name, John Jessup. Luce’s blasts: Seiberling: “We were constantly having to protest that undercutting. There was a clear division within the magazine.” “Didn’t really understand”: Seiberling. “Is he the greatest”: “JP,” pp. 42–43, 45, Quintessentially American: See Friedman, p. 133. “Look at him”: De Kooning, q. by Resnick.

  “Look, Jack Pollock’s”: Horgan. “Where Jack’s fingertip”: Porter. “A famous artist”: Patrick. Cody investigation: Solomon, p. 194, citing the Cody Enterprise, Aug. 12, 1949. “Completely understand”: SMP, q. in the Deep River, Conn., New Era, Aug. 25, 1949, q. in Solomon, p. 194. “Felt good”: Hicks, “What sort of an adjustment”: Wall to JP, Aug. 23, 1949. “In my opinion”: Isaacs to editors of Life, Aug. 8, 1949; see “Letters to the Editors,” p. 9. “You [have] mastered”: Daniel D. McFarland to JP, n.d. “I like”; “would you please”: H. M. Brehm to JP, Aug. 6, 1949. “Contribute a drawing”: Norman McGrath to JP, Sept. 13, 1949. “Fabulous write-up”: SMP to CCP, EFP, and Jeremy, n.d. “Picture”: SMP to FLP, MLP, and Jonathan, July 26, 1949. Frank, Charles, and Jay silent: FLP; CCP; MJP.

  Stopped in street: Potter, p. 114. Copies under arms: James Brooks. “Weren’t ready”: Q. in Vallière, “Daniel T. Miller,” p. 36. “Self-conscious”: Q. by Charlotte Brooks. “Nervous”: Parsons, q. in Potter, p. 114. “Embarrassed”: James Brooks. “Proud”: Miller, q. in Vallière, “Daniel T. Miller,” p. 36. “Willing to bet”: Wilfrid Zogbaum, q. in Potter, p. 114. Arranging for delivery: Little; Friedman, q. in Potter, p. 115: During Friedman’s first trip to Springs, JP had shown him a stack of copies of the Life article, handed him one, and told him that it was “a part of the story.”

  Ossorio’s chapel: Designed by Anthony Ramon, a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright; Ossorio, int. by Selvig, Nov. 19, 1968. Dragon rehearsing with Ballet: Dragon. Previous sources are incorrect in saying that Dragon went to the Philippines with Ossorio. Description of house: Dragon. “It’s like … the country”: Q. by Dragon. “I don’t know”: JP, q. by Ossorio, q. in DP&G, “Who Was JP?” p. 58.

  Not the usual crowd: Esteban Vicente; Harriet Vicente. “Broken the ice”: Resnick: This famous phrase was later used to describe the revolutionary impact of JP’s art on the styles of other artists, but it was originally used to describe the commercial breakthrough his paintings achieved. “Jackson got the right people interested,” Resnick says. Neuberger: Bianco, “When the Dow Took a Dive,” pp. 76–78. See Robbins and Neuberger, An American Collection. Brodovitch: Namuth, Pollock Painting, n.p., for the fact that he was there. Ripley: De Nagy; Ossorio. Ripley’s purchases: Number 26, 1949, OC&T 224, II, p. 47; Number 18, 1949, OC&T 226, II, pp. 48–49, since lost. Barr chastising Blake: Blake, q. in Potter, p. 96. Brach: “Barr’s reversal may not have depended as heavily on the Life article as the timing would suggest.” “The right names”; Neuberger resisting: Parsons, q. in Potter, p. 119. “She didn’t let on”: Merle Hubbard.

  “Better controlled”: Coates, “The Art Galleries,” Dec. 3, 1949, p. 95. “[Pollock] expresses”: R[obinson], “Reviews and Previews,” p. 43. “Fascination”: Burrows, review, New York Herald Tribune, Nov. 27, 1949. “Pollock’s forte”: Preston, “Abstract Quartet.” “Overlapping swirls”: Coates, “The Art Galleries,” Dec. 3, 1949, p. 95. “Happy landings”: McBride, “Abstract Painting.” “Repetitious”: Burrows, review, New York Herald Tribune, Nov. 27, 1949. “Fail[ed] to add up”: Preston, “Abstract Quartet.” “War-shattered city”: McBride, “Abstract Painting.” “Fashionable and blank”: [Eliot], “Handful of Fire,” p. 26: Eliot’s choice for “the country’s most promising young painter” was a young realist named Henry Koerner.

  Smith: Number 9, 1949, OC&T 248, II, p. 70. Ossorio: Number 19, 1949, OC&T 229, II, p. 52. Dragon: Number 19, 1949, “Birds of Paradise”, OC&T 237, II, p. 59. Macys: Triptych: Numbers 24, 25, 29, 1949, OC&T 219–21, II, pp. 42–43. Tremaine: Number 6, 1949, OC&T 247, II, pp. 68–69. Kaufmann: Number 12, 1949, OC&T 233, II, p. 55. Kimball: Number 28, 1949, OC&T 218, II, p. 42. Root: Number 34, 1949, OC&T 235, II, pp. 56–57. Ripley: Number 26, 1949, OC&T 224, II, p. 47; Number 18, 1949, OC&T 226, II, pp. 48–49, since lost; Number 27, 1949, OC&T 225, II, p. 48. Price: Number 27, 1949, OC&T 225, II, p. 48. “Who wouldn’t”: Little. Number 23, 1949: OC&T 223, II, p. 46. First-night sales: Ossorio. “[Jack] had the best”: SMP to FLP, MLP, and Jonathan, Dec. 22, 1949.

  Blake’s model; Breuer’s visit: Blake. “We attended”: LK to Ossorio, early Spring 1950. Dragon introducing Jackson to culture; “had no sense”: Dragon. “So tired”: SMP to FLP, MLP, and Jonathan, Dec. 22, 1949. Family’s darker explanation: ACM; FLP; MJP. Jackson unmoved by Heller’s death: Potter (p. 128) quotes JP soon after Heller’s accident expressing something akin to anguish, but we don’t give the quotation credence. The evidence indicates that JP was in New York when the accident happened, and, even if it is accurate, the quotation does not in our opinion betray any genuine sense of loss. Heller’s death is still considered by many to have caused JP to start drinking again; Rosenberg: “After Heller died, JP began drinking at once. He was just lost. The doctor had given him a feeling of self-respect. He acted like a big brother to him.” In fact, Heller died eight or nine months before JP fell off the wagon.

  Letter drafted; call from Newman: Solomon, p. 203. “I endorsed”: Q. in Solomon, p. 203. “Contempt for modern”: Q. in “18 Painters Boycott Metropolitan; Charge ‘Hostility to Advanced Art,’” NYT, May 22, 1950. Life article: “The Metropolitan and Modern Art,” Life, Jan. 15, 1951, pp. 34–38. The term “irascible” first appeared in an unsigned editorial in the Herald Tribune on May 23, 1950; see Alloway and MacNaughton, p. 48: Eighteen painters originally signed the letter along with ten sculptors. See also Sandler, “The Club,” p. 29. November 24: Alloway and MacNaughton, p. 49. Driving in with Brooks: Potter, p. 129. For a full account of the event, including a list of the other painters, see Friedman, “‘The Irascibles,’” Arts, Sept. 1978, pp. 96–102. “They were very surprised”: Q. in Alloway and MacNaughton, p. 49. Picture in Life: ”The Metropolitan and Modern Art,” p. 34. “The next installment”: James Brooks; see also Little.

  “[An] impregnable language”: Tyler, “JP,” pp. 92–93. “Most original art”: Barr, “Gorky, De Kooning, Pollock,” p. 60. MOMA reception: Friedman, p. 151. Attendees: Friedman, p. 156. Jackson refusing to drink: Friedman, p. 152. Eras meeting: We are indebted to Friedman (pp. 151–52) for this insight. “Not one single”: Genauer, “Art and Artists.” Eclipse of Paris: See Guilbaut. “Mostly imitat[ing]”: Cooper, “The Biennale Exhibition in Venice,” p. 14. “Melted Picasso”: Q. by Brach. “U.S. Painting”: [Eliot], “What’s In Fashion,” p. 50. Other Italian painters: Gino Severini, Lucio Fontana, Pericle Fazini. “‘They’re interesting, these Americans�
�; “A little forced”; “A little French”: q. by Carone. Correr Museum exhibition: PG to CG, Feb. 12, 1958. Number 12, 1949: OC&T 233, II, p. 55. Number 23, 1949: OC&T 223, II, p. 46. Works shown at Correr Museum: Friedman, p. 157. “Sent all the Venetian”: PG to CG, Feb. 12, 1958. Alfieri piece as catalogue: Friedman, p. 157; Alfieri, “A Short Talk on the Pictures of JP.” “Jackson Pollock’s paintings”: Alfieri, “A Short Talk on the Pictures of JP.”

  “Of the live”: [Bill Davis] to JP, n.d. Cartier watch; “The greatest painter”: Q. by Bultman. “Spatially wedded”; “pendant relationship”: Blake. Geller mural: OC&T 259 II, pp. 80–81. The final installment of the payment was dated July 10, 1950. We assume that it was held until soon after installation. See Mrs. Bert Geller to JP, July 10, 1950. Painting worth more than house: Blake, q. in Potter, p. 119. The painting was eventually sold to William Rubin and, still later, to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran.

  Smith visit: Potter, p. 123. No new works: JP to Ossorio, Spring 1950: “The studio is untouched. … I am gradually getting into painting again.” “Really big paintings”: Q. by LK. Ossorio’s return: JP to Ossorio, Spring 1950: JP apologizes for sending Ossorio the Tyler article in the March issue of Magazine of Art by regular mail and speculates that it will arrive “a week before you leave.” Given JP’s lack of promptness and international mail delays in 1950, Ossorio probably returned no earlier than mid-May. “Can you imagine”: Q. by Johnson. Chapel; “somewhere on Long Island”: Carmean, “The Church Project,” p. 110. Larkin’s pottery studio; “abstractions in pottery”: Q. in Potter, p. 107. Greenberg’s praise of Smith: Dehner. Smith’s Willard Gallery show: “David Smith,” Apr. 18–May 15, 1950; Willard Gallery at 32 East Fifty-seventh Street; noted in catalogue for traveling exhibition; Fry, David Smith.

  “Getting into painting”: JP to Ossorio, Spring 1950. “The first signs”: LK to Ossorio, Spring 1950. “Incomprehensible drippings”: Aurthur, “Hitting the Boiling Point,” p. 202. Cocktail party: Zogbaum. Lee’s guest lists: Ossorio. “Jackson knifed open”: Myers, p. 101. Small dinner parties: Castelli. Glasco: He was born in Oklahoma but moved to Texas when he was six; Glasco. De Nagy: De Nagy. Marionette “gaily painted”: Myers, p. 105; Myers says that the puppet was later accidentally destroyed by the children of Larry Rivers. De Nagy: By the end of the summer, JP and Lee were urging de Nagy to open a gallery. “They said there was no outlet with Peggy gone, no outlet for the young generation of painters following them.” By November, with financial backing from Jeanne Reynal and Dwight Ripley, de Nagy and Myers had rented a railroad flat on Fifty-third Street and opened the Tibor de Nagy Gallery.

  Rosenbergs absent: Rosenberg. Kadishes absent: Kadish. Wilcoxes absent: Wilcox. Brookses absent: Charlotte Brooks. “Entering his studio”: Vita Peterson. “Aura”; “mystical”; “poetic”: Kiesler. “Awe-inspiring”: Vivas. “Illuminating”: Vita Peterson. “Other-worldly”: Vivas. “Sparkling”: Johnson. “Glowing”; “gentle”: Donald Kennedy, q. in Potter, p. 217. “noble animal”: Ronald Stein. “Like a student”: Johnson. “Talked to him”: Glasco.

  “Maybe a ‘yes’”: Johnson. Harold Rosenberg complained about the “intellectualization” of JP in “The Search for JP,” p. 60: “What is to be gained by attributing to Pollock literary discoveries outside his range?” Roman mythology: Ossorio, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959, recalling Frank O’Hara. Finnegan’s Wake: Little. William Blake: Kiesler. T. S. Eliot: Jackson. Hero with a Thousand Faces: Ossorio, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. Man and the Unconscious: Vivas. Pico della Mirandola: Ossorio. Alfred North Whitehead: Abel. American literature: Fiedler. Bach and Vivaldi: Potter, p. 113. Jazz: Friedman. Gregorian chant: Ossorio. An intellectual to Ossorio: “You felt that he was in tune with the idea that one word could mean many things. You felt he thought on several levels. He loved the Joyce recordings of his collected works, the music of Joyce’s voice”; Ossorio, q. in DP&G, “Who Was JP?”, p. 58. Existential hero to Rosenberg: Rosenberg, introduction to Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, The lntrasubjectives. “Artistic Mark Twain”: Fiedler. “There is in Pollock some fundamentally American quality, so that I think of him along with Huckleberry Finn and Jay Gatsby, a ‘heart-of-the-heart-of-the-country’ American”; Fiedler, q. in Jeffrey Schaire, “Was JP Any Good?” Arts and Antiques, Oct. 1984, p, 85.

  Jackson picking up bits of knowledge: Fiedler: “There was no doubt that American literature was of interest to him, although most of his understanding of literature and the mind came secondhand.” Abel: “Jackson quoted Whitehead to me. I didn’t know what he was talking about. Somebody had told him about it.” Kramer: “Jackson sort of picked up diverse literary and intellectual notions from his friends.”

  “Buy a Pollock”; “It’s been waiting”: Q. by Mercer: “I sort of gasped. At the time, that was pretty high for his work. She seemed very much interested in its financial value.” Mercer thinks the painting was either Number 1, 1950 or Number 5, 1950. Lee issuing invitations: Castelli. Lee answered phone: Rose, p. 9. “To create a master”: Tabak, p. 47. Calling Jackson “Pollock”: Tabak, p. 47. “He would crumple”: Lord. Jackson above reproach: Blake: “Anything he did was all right with her.” “Never apologized”: Hempstead. “Pollock’s in the studio”: Q, by Dragon. “Believes in doing”: LK; see also LK, q. in DP&G, “Who Was JP?” p. 51. “Being difficult”: Tabak, p. 47. “He’s a genius”: Q. by Rosenberg. Lee greeting visitors: LK. Roueché introduced by Blake: Blake. Jackson and Roueché warming to each other: Roueché, q. in Potter, p. 127. Number 2, 1949: OC&T 222, II, pp. 44–45. Roueché‘s interview: [Roueché], “Unframed Space,” p. 16. “So many parties”: Q. by Zogbaum.

  37. RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD

  SOURCES

  Books, articles, and transcripts

  Friedman, JP; Myers, Tracking the Marvelous; Namuth, Pollock Painting; OC&T, JP; Ossorio, Fourteen Paintings; Potter, To a Violent Grave; Robertson, JP; Solomon, JP.

  DP&G, “Who Was JP?” Art in America, May–June 1967; Grace Glueck, “Krasner and Pollock: Scenes from a Marriage,” Art News, Dec. 1981; JP, “Letter to the Editor,” Time, Dec. 11, 1950; Barbara Rose, “Hans Namuth’s Photographs and the JP Myth; Part One: Media Impact and the Failure of Criticism,” Arts, Mar. 1979; James T. Vallière, “Daniel T. Miller,” Provincetown Review, Fall 1968; James T. Vallière, “De Kooning on Pollock,” Partisan Review, Fall 1967.

  CG, “The Pollock Market Soars,” NYT Magazine, Apr. 16, 1961; Joseph Liss, “Memories of Bonac Painters,” East Hampton Star, Sept. 13, 1983.

  CG, int. by James T. Vallière, Mar. 20, 1968, AAA; Elwyn Harris, int. by Kathleen Shorthall for Life, Nov. 9, 1959, Time/Life Archives; Betty Parsons, int. by Shorthall for Life, Nov. 9, 1959, Time/Life Archives; JP, int. by Dorothy Seiberling for Life, July 18, 1949, Time/Life Archives; Mr. and Mrs. Richard Talmage, int. by Shorthall for Life, Nov. 9, 1959, Time/Life Archives.

  Interviews

  Lionel Abel; Peter Blake; Leonard Bocour; Edward Cook; Dorothy Dehner; Ted Dragon; Herbert Ferber; B. H. Friedman; Jane Graves; CG; Grace Hartigan; Ben Heller; Edward Hults; Edys Hunter; Harry Jackson; Lillian Olaney Kiesler; Ruth Kligman; LK; John Little; Herbert Matter; Hans Namuth; Doug Ohlson; Alfonso Ossorio; Vita Peterson; May Tabak Rosenberg; Bill Smith; Hedda Sterne; Allene Talmage; Roger Wilcox.

  NOTES

  “Think big”: Q. by LK. Dating of the large drip paintings: Friedman (p. 166) dates Number 32, 1950 July or August; Number 31, 1950 and Number 30, 1950 September or October. But Namuth met JP on July 1, 1950, and, by his own account, visited the studio soon thereafter for his first photo session, at which JP painted Number 31, 1950 (One). Solomon, pp. 205–06: When Rudolph Burckhardt visited the studio in June, JP had just completed Number 32. That would put Number 28, 1950 in May–June; Number 32 in late June: Number 31, 1950 in July; and Autumn Rhythm in July–August; see OC&T II, p. 79. This chronology also respects JP’s preference for working in the summer.

  Number 28, 1950: OC&T 260, II, pp. 82–83 (5′8″ × 8‘8�
�). Largest canvas in six years: It was only slightly bigger than the Geller mural and only two inches longer than Number 1A, 1948 (OC&T 186, II, pp. 2–3); there were also several scroll canvases that were considerably longer. Description of Lavender Mist: OC&T 264, II, pp. 86–87; Ossorio, n.p. Ossorio says the painting has grayed since it was painted. Number 32, 1950: OC&T 274, II, pp. 98–99. Number 31, 1950: OC&T 283, II, pp. 105–07. Tiniest fleck: See, e.g., detail from One in Robertson, plate 38, opposite page 71. Number 30, 1950: OC&T 297, II, pp. 116–19 (8′10″ × 17′8″). Gazing at miniatures: LK. “Phony” in conversations: Wilcox.

  “Look, Dave”: Q. by Dehner. “Everyone’s shit”: JP, q. by Hartigan. “Everybody stank”: Int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959. “Greatest artist ever”: Q. in Friedman, p. 181. “Repeat their mistakes”: CG. “Rubens landscapes”: Int. by Vallière, Mar. 20, 1968. “Pissed”: CG. “I gathered”: PG to Charles Seliger, Nov. 11, 1949, Charles Seliger Collection. No mention of Peggy’s support: JP, int. by Seiberling, July 18, 1949. Jackson refusing to show at Kootz: Others who refused were Still, Rothko, and Newman; Friedman, p. 153. Seen “In large scale”: Friedman, p. 153.

  Namuth “hostile”: “My first reaction was hostile,” Namuth later wrote in Pollock Painting, n. p. “The paintings seemed disorderly and violent. I could not tear myself away from my old loves: Vincent van Gogh, Franz Marc, Paul Klee.” “Most important artist”: Brodovitch, q. in Namuth, n.p. Namuth approaching Jackson: Namuth, n.p. Blake says he introduced Namuth to JP. “A good idea”: Namuth, n.p. Jackson agreeing: JP couldn’t have been too camera-shy, given the roster of prominent photographers he invited to photograph him, including Matter, Burckhardt, Newman, and Namuth.

  “I’m sorry, Hans”: Q. in Namuth, n.p. Lee’s approval: “I suggested going into the studio so that I might at least see what he had been working on. He looked at his wife, who nodded”; Namuth, n.p. “As if he suddenly”; “[she] told me”: Namuth, n.p. “Annoyance”: “She sometimes became a little annoyed that I broke into their lives when it was not completely convenient, but in the end she allowed me to do what I wanted”; Namuth, n.p. Portfolio; “Annual of the graphic”: [Brodovitch], “JP,” n.p. Return visits: Namuth claims he visited the Pollocks most every weekend that summer, but his published photographs indicate only three separate visits. “Whenever Pollock”: Namuth, n.p. Ignoring the camera: See Rose, “Hans Namuth’s Photographs … Part One,” p. 112. “Careful and deliberate”: CG, “The Pollock Market Soars,” p. 135. JP’s movements were described as “harmonious and quiet” by another studio witness, Herbert Matter: “He would do things, and then he looked, and then he went to the other side and looked again and did a few more things. It was never fanatical.” Slowing exposure: Namuth, n.p. Matter: “Some of the pictures Namuth took, he used a really slow exposure, so Jackson seems to be moving much faster than he actually was.” Reviewing pictures. Namuth, n.p. “The proofs”: Namuth, n.p. Rose (“Hans Namuth’s Photographs … Part One,” p. 112) argues, incorrectly we think, that “Pollock, totally immersed in his own trancelike activity, was oblivious to the repeated click-click of high-speed film that permitted Namuth to capture Pollock’s spontaneity in images that freeze the artist’s motions into a blur of urgency.”