Jackson Pollock

by Steven Naifeh

  “Rebels”; “outcasts”: Marca-Relli. Sandler (“The Club,” p. 29) accepts this self-image: “Reacting against a public, which, when not downright hostile to their work, was indifferent or misunderstanding, vanguard artists created their own audience, mostly of other artists—their own art world.” Avoiding formal issues: Kozloff, “An Interview with Robert Motherwell,” p. 37. “Founder and organizer”: Barrett, p. 134; Sandler (“The Club,” p. 29) calls Pavia “the dominant force in Club affairs … who made up any financial deficit and arranged the programs.” Sandler, “The Club,” p. 29: The early spur-of-the-moment character of the Club soon gave way to planned lectures and panels. “A different world”: Pavia. “Why an artist”: Sandler, “The Club,” p. 30. “Abstract Expressionism”: Pavia (q. in Gruen, p. 270) claims he invented the term. Without consensus: “Reinhardt refused to recognize the word ‘expressionism’—he wanted to use the word ‘abstraction’”; Pavia, q. in Gruen, p. 270. “Baboons”: Q. by Resnick. Exhibitions banned: Cherry; Marca-Relli. Talk of money: Sandler, “The Club,” p. 29. Passing the hat: Barrett, p. 133.

  Admission policy: Ernestine Lassaw: “If you weren’t in Lewitin’s good graces, he wouldn’t let you in.” Blackball system: Sandler, “The Club,” p. 29: “Two negative votes (it had to be two because Lewitin always voted no) and a candidate was rejected.” Gaps in education: See Elaine de Kooning, q. in Potter, p. 122. Subjects of the Artist: Friedman, p. 108; see also Cavaliere and Hobbs, “Against a Newer Laocoön,” pp. 110–17. “Our painting”: Motherwell, q. in Kozloff, “An Interview with Robert Motherwell,” p. 37. “Master of Ceremonies”: Cavaliere and Hobbs, “Against a Newer Laocoön,” p. 110. See Sandler, “The Club,” p. 29. Jackson intimidated: Elaine de Kooning, q. in Potter, p. 122.

  Chairs cleared away: Porter. Folk music: Ibram Lassaw. A visiting architect was terrified that the building would collapse. “You could have lost the entire New York movement if the floor collapsed,” says Matter. Tarantella: Ernestine Lassaw. “Crackling sexuality”: Southern. Pretty girls: Matter: When a woman’s name came before the membership committee, people would ask, “What does she look like?” Matter only woman: Matter; in “The Club,” p. 27, Sandler says Matter was a later member. Edge of sexuality: Dixon; Rosenberg; Esteban Vicente; Harriet Vicente; Zogbaum. Misogynist game: Fleiss; Ribak. Jackson frightened: Harry Jackson. “All the women”: Q. by Wilcox. Jackson always alone: Ernestine Lassaw. “What his pictures”: Carone. “Shrug[ging]”: Barrett, p. 146. “I don’t discuss”: Q. by Newman, int. by Shorthall, Nov. 9, 1959.

  Lee not painting: Reis: “I think she held back because she didn’t want to interfere with JP’s career.” “Pollock was breaking through”: Q. in Nemser, p. 91. “The best period”: Johnson. “Safe” to work: LK, q. by Dragon. “I wasn’t saying”: Q. in DeLatiner, “LK”: “For me, it was quite enough to continue working, and his success, once he began to sell, gave us an income of sorts and made me ever so grateful because, unlike wives of the artists who had to go out and support them, I could continue painting myself.” “In the shadow”: DeLatiner, “LK.” Reis: “Lee was very anxious for Jackson to succeed, but privately unhappy that she was not able to pursue her own career.” Not just by Jackson: Brooks. “Lee, get Jackson”: Q. by LK, q. in Kernan, “LK.” “Very few painters”: LK, q. in Glueck, “Krasner and Pollock,” p. 58. Few admirers: Krasner insisted that the artists who were “hanging all over the place” did see her works, despite numerous accounts to the contrary; see Cavaliere, “An Interview with LK,” p. 14. But this directly contradicts her later statement that few “acknowledged that I painted at all.”

  “Showed no interest”: George Mercer. Leftover spaces: Johnson. Jackson showing works: Johnson: Sometimes he would bring in an entire show’s worth of paintings. No one asking to see Lee’s: Edys Hunter.

  Sharing the money: LK, q. in DeLatiner, “LK.” “What I couldn’t”: Q. in Wallach, “LK.” “Take chances”: Rose, p. 66. Inexact chronology: Applehof; Wilcox. “Work through Pollock”: LK, q. by John Lee. “When the Guild Hall show was up,” recalls John Lee, “I said, ‘You know, most people like your paintings more than they like Pollock’s.’ She said, ‘Of course they do.’ Her implication was that her paintings were easier to get, or easier to like. But there was no implication—and I could read her pretty well—that she was a better artist than he was. She was an artist, and he was a genius. She may have gone along with the Barbara Rose thing [the thesis that Pollock and Krasner influenced each other’s work in equal measure], but she never believed it. Her only qualification was, why should she not be allowed to be influenced by one of the geniuses, like everybody else, just because she was his wife?”

  Continuum: Rose, fig. 52, p. 58. Lava: Rose, fig. 69, p. 74. Gothic; Frieze: Rose, fig. 61, p. 63. Promenade: Rose, fig. 62, p. 64; for reasons stated above, we believe the date 1947 given by Rose is erroneous. Masonite: Rose, p. 65. Ochre Rhythm: Rose, fig. 65, p. 68. Rose speculates that Krasner began this canvas in 1950. Painting thinly: Rose, p. 68. “The unconscious as a source”: Rose, p. 66. Automatic drawing: Rose, p. 68. Stick figures: Rose, fig. 64, p. 68. Canvases growing: Rose, p. 68. Portrait-sized Little Image paintings: See, e.g., Untitled, Rose, fig. 60, p. 62 (38” × 38”). Blue and Black: Rose, fig. 67, p. 71. Cajoling visitors: Dragon. Dragon’s admiration: “I said wow! I loved it!” Myers, Little, Lindeberg, Tomlin: Nemser, p. 91. “That’s hot”: Q. by LK, q. in Nemser, p. 91.

  Plans for reunion: MLP. No sleep or work: LK. Lee’s concern: Dragon, q. in Potter, p. 159. “Triumph”; “a bust”: LK. Charles, Elizabeth, and Marie meeting Lee: CCP; EFP; MLP. Fascinated by table: Jonathan Pollock. Tour: Jonathan Pollock: “I remember walking around in that barn. Jackson was showing Dad and the other brothers some of the canvases that were stacked up there.” Baseball; “a boy’s game”: Jonathan Pollock. Renaming of Jason; going to beach: ACM. “Christmas feast in July”: MJP. No alcohol: Capillé. Family pictures: In possession of MJP. Alma not forgiving Jackson: Capillé. Jackson “just keeping” blankets: After JP died, says Jay, Krasner “wouldn’t listen to a word about it.” Jay and Alma stopped visiting: MJP. Jonathan “seriously ill”: Q. by MLP: Jonathan had ear, nose, and throat problems all his life; around the time of the family reunion, he underwent surgery to have his adenoids removed. Frank’s job at nursery: MLP.

  “Being a he-man”: CG. “Aggression and strain: SWP. Sande’s illness: ACM. Kadish: Sande died in 1963 of leukemia contracted from breathing chemical fumes in his windowless shop room. Stella’s letters to her family from the mid-forties onward are full of references to Sande’s inexplicable sore throats and, in at least one letter, pointed, without knowing it, to the cause; SMP to CCP, EFP, and Jonathan, Apr. 11, 1944: “Sanford has had a terrible sore throat for over two weeks had to go to the Dr. is better working in the plant doesn’t help it any.” Stella and Arloie: SWP. “I[t’s] not me”: SMP to CCP, Jan. 14, 1954. Children cared for by Stella: Capillé; Del Pilar; Jason McCoy. “His precious”: Del Pilar. “Exquisitely beautiful”: EFP. Jason mistaken for girl: Del Pilar. “Mommie”; “Loie”: SMP to CCP, EFP, and Jonathan, Aug., n.d. Stella wanting musician: SMP to CCP, Feb. 21, 1950.

  Charles’s intervening years: CCP; EFP. “Breakdown”; “three months in the desert”: “Charles Pollock in Conversation,” p. 13. Third Avenue studio: Cherry. Circle Gallery show: CCP. One Pollock was enough: Charles never admitted this: “For some reason, I thought I didn’t want to show under the name of Pollock.” Charles used the name only for one exhibition at the Circle Gallery—“a momentary aberration,” he called it. CCP: When JP heard about the name change, he called Charles and said, “What the hell did you do that for!” “Charles Pima”: CCP. Resentment not showing: EFP: “He never showed any resentment toward Jackson. He was protective and helpful. There was never the slightest sign of envy. … I was the one who had that feeling.” CCP: “In some ways, unfortunately, I always had too many strings to my bow. Jack had one string.” Charles boiling: Cherry, who was not at the re
union, made this general comment about Charles in the early fifties. ABP: “He doesn’t show it at all, but inside he must be bitter. How could he not be? Resentful of his brother and bitter towards the failure of history.” CCP: He and his family spent parts of the summers of 1950 and 1951 in Sag Harbor. Capillé: Except for the one-day family reunion, Charles’s family rarely saw JP and Krasner, even though they were living only twelve miles apart.

  “Must be great”: MJP to MLP, FLP, and Jonathan, Dec. 3, 1950. Gothic; Arabesque: Photos in possession of MJP. “The only painter”; “buy that”: Q. by FLP. Frank remembers the painting as Autumn Rhythm, which had not yet been painted at the time of the reunion. “Gracious hostess”: EFP. Lee whispering prices: MJP. Lee putting up with the family: She told Dragon that any visit from a family member upset her, because it upset JP; LK, q. by Dragon, q. in Potter, p. 159. “Silent adoration”: EFP. Jackson’s failure to help with Stella: EFP; FLP; MJP; MLP. The family generally blamed Lee for JP’s stinginess. Charles’s affability and quiet drinking: Capillé. “When posterity”: EFP. ABP: “Charles should have been the one who was a success. … That’s what all the rest of the family thought. Certainly his mother did.” “Do you know”: Q. by ABP in Solomon, p. 204. “Is Picasso”: Q. in Solomon, p. 204.

  Gloating over New Yorker: LK. “The next logical step”; black-and-white film; “Reveal[ed]”; Falkenberg: Namuth, n.p. Lee’s encouragement: Potter, p. 129. “Voyeuristic element”: Namuth, n.p. September dating: Namuth insists the filming took place in September and October, but we believe that it continued into November and therefore probably began in mid-to-late September. Jackson agreeing to outdoor shooting: Namuth, n.p. Reconstruction of filming: Raynor, “JP in Retrospect,” p. 50; also LK; Little; Wilcox; Dragon; Marca-Relli; Namuth. “Pollock’s shoes”: Falkenberg, q. in Namuth, n.p. Namuth also “simulated” a “short transitional passage that shows JP’s shadow flinging paint dramatically onto a canvas. … I periodically consider deleting it because it is not convincing”; Namuth, n.p.

  “A main ingredient”: Namuth, n.p. “Artist at work”: Namuth, q. in Friedman, p. 163. Blake says it was his idea to work on a piece of glass as a way of photographing Pollock. Namuth, n.p., claims the idea was his. “A painting that … was transparent”: Blake. Pittsburgh Plate Glass: See Friedman, p. 163. Herculite: Blake. Namuth (n.p.) says it was glass (not true) and that it cost $10 (very unlikely). Late October: Namuth is the only one who believes the filming was finished by late October. Namuth lying on back: Namuth (n.p.) says it took “many unsuccessful attempts.” Jackson’s “false starts”: Namuth (n.p.) says JP had “several” false starts. “Now?”: Q. by LK. Couldn’t afford more glass: Namuth, n.p. Arranging pebbles: Friedman, p. 163. November cold: LK. Jackson withdrawing: Blake describes him as “terribly withdrawn” during this period. “Jackson Pollock’s abstractions”: “Chaos, Damn It!” pp. 70–71. “No chaos damn it”: JP, “Letters to the Editor,” p. 10. “Wasn’t that bad”; “very upset”; “more churning”: Q. in Potter, p. 130. Greenberg visit: CG.

  November 25 dating: Namuth insists that this incident occurred in October, but a November date is suggested by Potter (p. 130), Johnson, and Zogbaum. Johnson says that, when she talked to JP on the phone that day, he was particularly upset about the Time Biennale review, which didn’t come out until November 20. Mean day; “bloody cold”: Blake, q. in Potter, p. 131. Hand going numb: Namuth, n.p. “Final shot”; “technical delays”; “full of tension”; four-thirty; “we are done!”: Namuth, n.p. Turkey: Blake, Dragon, and Namuth say the meal was turkey. Jeffrey and Penny Potter (Potter, p. 131) both say it was roast beef. The other guests aren’t sure. Friends invited: Potter, p. 130: Hans and Carmen Namuth, Jeffrey and Penny Potter, Wilfrid and Betsy Zogbaum, Peter Blake, John Little, Ted Dragon, Alfonso Ossorio, Gina Knee, and her husband Alexander Brook. Betsy Zogbaum claims she wasn’t there and Knee and Brook declined the invitation. Bourbon: Blake, q. in Potter, p. 131. “Went white”: Ossorio, q. in DP&G, “Who Was JP?” p. 58. Silence; Blake standing at table: Blake, q. in Potter, p. 131. “Tried to speak”; Namuth trying to brush it off”: Blake. “Why are you so upset?”: Dragon. “You just don’t know”: Q. by Dragon.

  Summoning Namuth: Namuth, n.p. “The first drink”: Q. by Blake. “Don’t be a fool”: Q. in Friedman, p. 165. Second tumblerful: Namuth, n.p. Namuth hurried out: LK. Changing before dinner: Namuth, n.p. “Jackson can’t come”: Q. by Johnson. Zogbaums arriving: Potter (p. 130) says that Betsy Zogbaum was there, but she denies it. Trying to ignore Jackson: Namuth, n.p. Jackson swinging sleighbells: Potter, p. 132; Namuth says only that JP threatened “playfully—and perhaps not completely playfully” to hit him with them. “Maybe those natives”: Q. by Potter, p. 129. “You’re a phony”: Q. by Johnson. Johnson says she wasn’t there, but “it was described to me so graphically.” Seating arrangements: Potter, p. 132. “I’m not a phony”: Q. by Johnson. “Tiresome, awful”: Blake. Jackson standing up: Potter, p. 132. “Should I do it?”: Q. by Zogbaum. “Jackson—no!”: Q. by Blake. “Shut up, Hans”: Penny Potter, q. by Blake. “Now?”: Q. by Blake. Creamed onions: Dragon, q. in Potter, p. 131. Door slamming: Potter, p. 132. “Coffee”: Q. in DP&G, “Who Was JP?” p. 50.

  Wilcox in Mexico: Wilcox: He had left for Mexico for a four-month research job with the Bigelow Sanford Carpet Company, studying primitive yarn-making and weaving techniques. “Lucia and I invited Jackson to go with us. I told him it wouldn’t cost him anything. I told him I could support a family of four on the money the company was giving me. But Lee didn’t want to leave.” Nearby bar: De Laszlo. Macys’ dinner: Johnson. De Laszlo: JP must have decided to ignore Krasner’s antagonism toward De Laszlo, because he later invited her to his studio to see the photographs Namuth had taken and to look at the work that was there.

  39. THE UNRAVELING

  SOURCES

  Books, articles, film, document, record, and transcripts

  Bourne and Fox, eds., Alcoholism; Bychowski and Despert, eds., Specialized Techniques in Psychotherapy; Carmean and Rathbone, American Art at MidCentury; Eisenstein, ed., Neurotic Interaction in Marriage; Fox. ed., Alcoholism; Fox and Lyon: Alcoholism; Friedman, JP; Gruen, The Party’s Over Now; Hefner, ed., East Hampton’s Heritage; Hess, Abstract Painting; Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, JP; Masserman, Current Psychiatric Therapies; The Medical Clinics of North America; Namuth, Pollock Painting; Nemser, Art Talk; FVOC, JP; OC&T, JP; Brodovitch, “JP,” in Portfolio; Betty Parsons Gallery, JP: 1950; Betty Parsons Gallery, JP: 1951; Potter, To a Violent Grave; Putz, JP; Barbara Rose, LK; Bernice Rose, JP; Seldes, The Legacy of Mark Rothko; Solomon, JP; Tabak, But Not for Love; Thompson, On Growth and Form.

  Lawrence Alloway, “Pollock’s Black Paintings,” Arts, May, 1969; “American Fashion: The New Soft Look,” Vogue, Mar. 1, 1951; [Alexey Brodovitch], “JP,” Portfolio; DP&G, “Who Was JP?” Art in America, May–June 1967; Ruth Fox, “The Alcoholic Spouse,” in Eisenstein, ed., Neurotic Interaction in Marriage; Ruth Fox, “Disulfiram (Antabuse) as an Adjunct to the Treatment of Alcoholism,” in Fox. ed., Alcoholism; Ruth Fox, “Modified Group Psychotherapy for Alcoholics,” Postgraduate Medicine, Mar. 1966; Ruth Fox, “A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Treatment of Alcoholism,” International Journal of Psychiatry, Jan. 1968; Ruth Fox, “Psychotherapeutics of Alcoholism,” in Bychowski and Despert, eds., Specialized Techniques in Psychotherapy; Ruth Fox, “Treatment of Chronic Alcoholism,” in Masserman, Current Psychiatric Therapies; Ruth Fox, “Treatment of Chronic Alcoholism,” in The Medical Clinics of North America; Ruth Fox, “Treatment of the Problem Drinker,” in Bourne and Fox, eds., Alcoholism; Robert Goodnough, “Pollock Paints a Picture,” Art News, May 1951; Robert Goodnough, “Reviews and Previews,” Art News, Dec. 1950; “JP: An Artists’ Symposium, Part I,” Art News, Apr. 1967; Ken Kelley, “Betty Parsons Taught America to Appreciate What It Once Called ‘Trash’: Abstract Art,” People, Feb. 29. 1978; “The Year’s Best: 1950,” Art News, Jan. 1951.

  Lawrence Alloway, “The Art of JP
: 1912–1956,” London Listener, Nov. 27, 1958, p. 888; Howard Devree, review, NYT, Dec. 3, 1950; Flora Lewis, “Two Paris Shows à la Pollock,” NYT, Oct. 3, 1979; Stuart Preston, “Among One-Man Shows,” NYT, Oct. 21, 1951.

  Jackson Pollock (film), produced by Hans Namuth and Paul Falkenberg, narration by JP, music by Morton Feldman, 1951.

  JP, will and letter of request, Mar. 9, 1951; Police Log, East Hampton Town Police, Dec. 28, 1951.

  CG, int. by Kathleen Shorthall for Life, Nov. 9. 1959, Time/Life Archives; Elwyn Harris, int. by Shorthall for Life, Nov. 9, 1959, Time/Life Archives; Alfonso Ossorio, int. by Shorthall for Life, Nov. 9, 1959, Time/Life Archives; JP, int. by William Wright, WERI, Westerly, R.I., 1951; Tony Smith, int. by James T. Vallière, Aug. 1965, AAA.

  Interviews

  James Brooks; Fritz Bultman; Peter Busa; Nicholas Carone; Giorgio Cavallon; Herman Cherry; Violet de Laszlo; Ted Dragon; Ray Kaiser Eames; Jimmy Ernst; Morton Feldman; Herbert Ferber; B. H. Friedman; David Gibbs; Joe Glasco; Grace Glueck; CG; Budd Hopkins; Edward Hults; Harry Jackson; Paul Jenkins; Buffie Johnson; Reuben Kadish; Gerome Kamrowski; LK; John Little; Conrad Marca-Relli; Herbert Matter; ACM; George Mercer; John Bernard Myers; Annalee Newman (int. by David Peretz); Constantine Nivola; Doug Ohlson; Alfonso Ossorio; Philip Pavia; Vita Peterson; CCP; Milton Resnick; May Tabak Rosenberg; Irving Sandler; Jim Shepperd; Jane Smith; Herman Somberg; Ruth Stein; Michael Stolbach; Allene Talmage; Esteban Vicente; Harriet Vicente; Joan Ward; Helen Wheelwright; Enez Whipple; Roger Wilcox; Betsy Zogbaum; Howard Zucker.